Move over heroin, there’s a new deadly drug in town, and it’s called fentanyl. This opiate is a staggering 100x more potent than morphine and 50x more powerful than heroin. It has quickly become the most deadly drug in the US. That is why experts have refocused their efforts on fentanyl.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, fentanyl-related drug overdoses have shot up 113% between 2013 and 2016. During this time, it replaced heroin as being the nation’s most deadly drug. Currently, there are nearly 20,000 deaths associated with this synthetic opioid annually.
It all started when fentanyl was administered to patients who were dealing with severe pain after surgery. However, in recent years it has been flowing in from China via Mexico in massive quantities, for sale on the black market. The street version is usually mixed with heroin, cocaine, and other fillers, increasing the profits of those selling them. Fentanyl is incredibly cheap and is often pressed into pills to look like oxycodone. However, it is far more addictive, lethal, and dangerous. With the black market not having the highest quality control, there are often batches that have more fentanyl than planned, leading to waves of overdoses.
A triple board-certified doctor in neurology, addiction medicine, and preventative medicine named Russell Surasky has seen the terrible plight of fentanyl addiction and has decided to do something about it. His keen insights have led him to develop a safe and effective treatment program that has helped countless people recover from fentanyl addiction.
At Bridge Back to Life, Dr. Surasky uses early-stage detox methods, Vivitrol treatment, and special spinal adjustments to reduce the stress on the upper spine and limbic system. These treatment methods have been so successful that they are often able to get previously-addicted patients staying away from opiates for the rest of their lives.
Dr. Surasky’s own findings have uncovered that practically all heroin today contains fentanyl. Additionally, three out of four oxycodone pills bought on the street will have fentanyl in them. Even just one of these pills is enough to kill the user, making them extremely dangerous.
As recently as 2019, the Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention Act was passed, which mandates that the Customs and Border Protection agency make use of advanced electronic data to screen every package that arrives internationally. Until this law, loopholes were being exploited that made it easy for international distributors to ship deadly fentanyl into the country without being detected.
Dr. Surasky has decided to be a pioneer in helpful treatments for fentanyl addiction that are safe, effective, and inexpensive. The combination of treatment methods he employs has proven to be very effective for countless patients, which is why he now travels and speaks to other doctors about solutions to this epidemic that exist right now.