Chinese companies are fueling sales of a dangerous opioid in the U.S., and the drug trade is booming despite efforts by authorities to restrict distribution.
Carfentanil is a synthetic opiate that has been the subject of chemical weapons research and is used to tranquilize large animals. An amount smaller than a poppy seed or a grain of salt can reportedly kill a human being, the Associated Press revealed recently.
The drug can take down, even kill, an elephant. Ignoring the risks, carfentanil is the rage among drug users. The fentanyl-related compound is said to be behind hundreds of overdoses and numerous deaths in the U.S. and Canada.
Authorities have carried out 400 seizures in eight U.S. states since July, the AP reported Wednesday.
Carfentanil is reportedly 5,000 times more powerful than heroin and 10,000 times stronger than morphine, making it one of the most potent drugs on the market.
The Russians converted the drug into an aerosol spray and used against Chechen rebels during a hostage crisis in 2002 — 125 people died in the incident.
China is the main source for fentanyl-related compounds in North America. Carfentanil is brought into the U.S. by Chinese distributors. Drug dealers in the U.S. acquire it, cut it with heroin and other narcotics, and then sell it on the street.
The highly-lethal drug can be easily acquired from Chinese companies online. Twelve companies were identified as carfentanil distributors in last month’s AP report. Since the report came out, only three companies have actually stopped selling the product.
Jilin Tely Import and Export Co. previously called carfentanil a “hot sales product.” Now, the company has reportedly scrubbed all records of ever selling the product.
Nine Chinese companies are still selling the drug online, and four additional companies have indicated a willingness to sell carfentanil.
While the product is banned in the U.S., it is extremely difficult to track. The dangerous opiate can be directly exported in standard cargo and postal shipments.
“Standard field kits do not accurately detect fentanyl,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske told a congressional committee, according to the AP.
In a period of only 21 days in July, a total of 236 carfentanil-related overdoses occurred in Ohio. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) only logged 320 overdoses for all narcotics in the first six months of this year. The carfentanil craze has definitely led to a serious spike in overdoses. At one point, 60 overdoses occurred across two states in just 48 hours.
There are even concerns that terrorists could use carfentanil. “Terrorists could acquire it commercially as we have seen drug dealers doing,” nuclear, chemical, and biological defense specialist Andrew Weber told the AP.
The DEA has pushed China to blacklist carfentanil as it has 19 other fentanyl products, but China has yet to do so; however, the DEA is hopeful.
China is cooperating and working with the DEA to solve the present carfentanil problem. “Our agents work hand in hand with the Chinese,” DEA spokesman Melvin Patterson told the Daily Caller News Foundation, “They have given our agents a heads up on some of the companies distributing carfentanil, as well as incoming shipments.” China is concerned about the problem, but blacklisting a product, a legislative action, takes time.
China previously shut down the distribution of 116 products that went into the production of synthetic marijuana, also known as spice or K2, and the results were very positive, Patterson explained to TheDCNF. Once China does the same with carfentanil, this deadly fad should start to fade.
In the meantime, though, sales continue to thrive.
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