Fentanyl: Federal Response, Trafficking and Legislation

The opioid crisis in the United States is exacerbated by both the ubiquity and potency of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. Fentanyl is commonly mixed surreptitiously with other illicit drugs-such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine-and thus is often taken unknowingly, which has driven an increase in opioid overdoses in recent years. The CDC estimates that there were about 110,000 drug overdose deaths in 2022, and of those, roughly 75% were due to fentanyl or other synthetic opioids.