Effects of Fentanyl on the Human Body
Hey kids! Have y’all tried fentanyl? No? Good, because if you did you’d probably be dead by now.
Fentanyl is an opioid drug that is often prescribed medically as a form of pain killing. However, this drug can also be deadly when taken in amounts higher than that of medically recommended. According to B.C. Coroners Service, a government agency that investigates deaths in British Columbia (BC), drug toxicity is the leading cause of deaths in BC. In 2023 alone, there have been 2,511 deaths from drug toxicity, with 92% of these deaths involving fentanyl contamination (B.C. Coroners Service, 2023). This staggering number illustrates the severity of fentanyl, yet it is often overlooked even when these deaths are happening in our own province.
The detrimental effects of fentanyl comes from two main parts: physical harm and addictiveness. The human nervous system contains opioid receptors, which modulate the person’s pain and reward behaviors. When fentanyl enters the body, the chemicals bind to the opioid receptors, leading to the release of a chemical called dopamine. Normally, dopamine releases following the attainment of an award, giving the person a momentary feeling of pleasure. Fentanyl forces much more of this chemical to be released. This will cause various deadly side effects such as limiting the brain’s ability to detect CO2 levels in the body, leading to reduced or stopped breathing. Additional side effects include dizziness, vomiting, fainting, and extreme constipation. Fentanyl is also much stronger than other opioids, being 100 times stronger than morphines. This is because the chemical structure of many other opioids, including morphine and heroin, are nonpolar with polar ends, whereas the chemical structure of fentanyl is entirely nonpolar. This means that fentanyl is able to dissolve in fats much easier, which in turn makes it able to pass the semi-permeable blood-brain barrier (BBB) in the body’s neuroimmune system. Being semi-permeable, this barrier allows for the diffusion of lipid-soluble molecules. Fentanyl, being more easily dissolved in lipids than other opioids, are able to pass through the BBB with much more ease and reach the brain’s opioid receptors. In summary, fentanyl’s ability to more easily dissolve into lipids allow it to pass the BBB quicker, making its effects more effective than other opioids. According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, it takes as little as 2 milligrams of fentanyl to kill an adult, further exemplifying the severe strength of this drug (DEA).
The lethal dose (2 mg) of fentanyl can be seen on the tip of the pencil.
Source: Wikipedia
Other than the physical harm, another huge part of the problem is fentanyl’s addictiveness. The human brain is able to build tolerance to drugs including fentanyl, which means that in the long term, the euphoric and rewarding effects will become less and less effective. To compensate, people may resort to taking larger doses each time, which could easily become fatal to them.
Moral of the story, fentanyl is bad.
Sources cited:
“Facts about Fentanyl.” DEA, 2020, www.dea.gov/resources/facts-about-fentanyl. Accessed 14 June 2024.
Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General Youth Unregulated Drug Toxicity Deaths YOUTH UNREGULATED DRUG TOXICITY DEATHS in BRITISH COLUMBIA. 2024.
Sources consulted:
CBC Manitoba. “How the Powerful Opioid Fentanyl Kills.” YouTube, 25 Nov. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i4mgeTj2hQ. Accessed 14 June 2024.
AsapSCIENCE. “Your Brain on Fentanyl (FIXED).” YouTube, 10 July 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0tW8FWBm1g. Accessed 14 June 2024.