PAIN-KILLER
The number of deaths caused by the painkiller fentanyl has risen tenfold since 1998
THE number of deaths caused by fentanyl poisoning has soared over the past 20 years.
The drug is a Class A opioid painkiller that is highly addictive and around 50 times more potent than heroin.
New figures from the
Office for National Statistics reveal there were 105 death certificates that mentioned fentanyl and analogue drugs across England and Wales in 2018. While it’s a slight fall from the 106 deaths in 2017, it’s far higher than the two deaths recorded in 1998.
In recent years the drug has been increasingly hitting the headlines, especially from 2016 onwards after the popstar Prince died from an accidental overdose of it. A report from The National Crime Agency (NCA) found that until late 2016, very few deaths in England and Wales had actually been attributed to the drug.
It causes breathing to slow and, in lethal dose levels, stop completely.
Small margins of error in dosage can result in death and poor mixing methods when adding fentanyl to heroin or in the manufacture of counterfeit prescription pills can lead to lethal overdoses.
In some cases, however, fentanyl can be prescribed to treat chronic pain and is often given to those who are terminally ill and are receiving palliative care.
The NCA also said it was possible that the number of deaths attributable to fentanyl is higher than the data has captured.
This is because there can be a delay in accessing toxicology results after testing.
Often blood samples will have to be back-tested, too, as fentanyl does not show up in standard toxicology results.
In the report the NCA said: “We do not fully understand why fentanyl is being introduced as an additive to heroin, to what extent users are aware of the addition, or whether there is an emerging demand for it. “US and Canadian analysis suggested that the introduction of fentanyl into their heroin markets led to rising demand and profit margins, but the UK market differs from North America and we have not seen any evidence to date of UK heroin users demanding fentanyl-laced heroin.”
In 2017 Public Health England issued a formal warning about the risks of heroin containing fentanyl.
They said postmortems following drug user deaths had revealed some heroin may contain fentanyl added by dealers.