No matter how much you grind or stir or shake the fentanyl mixture, potentially deadly “hot spots” will remain.Ī 50 microgram dose of fentanyl contains about 90,000,000,000,000,000 fentanyl molecules. “Hot spots” exist because of the chemical nature of fentanyl molecules: fentanyl cannot be mixed into or “cut” into an existing powder without leaving dangerous, unseen clumps of fentanyl. “Hot spots” are invisible and unavoidable in street drugs containing fentanyl. Even the same mixture can have inconsistent potency and include potentially fatal “hot spots.”Ī “hot spot” is part of a mixture that has an unexpectedly greater amount of fentanyl. It can never be used safely by humans because it is potent in amounts so infinitesimal that it can never be properly diluted in street drugs.ĭoses vary widely in illegal drugs. One analog, carfentanil, is especially dangerous. Some are more dangerous than fentanyl, a few appear to be a little less likely to cause overdoses (but still more likely to do so than heroin). An ever-changing group of about 20 analogs is found in street drugs.Įach analog has a different safety profile. The numbers do not apply to fentanyl analogs.įentanyl has more than 600 analogs (variants). And, remember, they were dead.įentanyl is the only drug estimated in the chart. The cases all involved users with high opioid tolerance. The official estimate is a guess based on a handful of anecdotes. Two thousand micrograms of pure fentanyl injected into a vein would cause even most heavy heroin users to overdose - especially if fentanyl is mixed with any other substance, such as heroin, alcohol or Xanax. Dilute, dilute, dilute.Ĭonventional medical wisdom is that 2,000 micrograms is the “minimum lethal dose” - in other words, the smallest amount that can be fatal.
Fentanyl should always be diluted to a maximum of one part fentanyl to 1,000 parts filler. Cocaine mixtures vary in size but 250,000 micrograms - or a quarter of a gram - might be found in a typical dose.ĭoing the math tells you that fentanyl must be an extremely tiny portion of a drug mixture if that mixture is treated as heroin or cocaine. The traditional size of a heroin mixture is 100,000 micrograms - or 1/10th of a gram. These amounts can kill a non-tolerant users, including veteran heroin users who have been abstinent for awhile Regular heroin users who have a tolerance to opioids can take more fentanyl, possibly two or three times more, without suffering an overdose.Īccording to one report, long-time addicts who desire fentanyl seek dose ranges between 250 and 1,000 micrograms. In truth, almost nothing is actually known about how much fentanyl is in street drugs, and doses vary enormously, often far outside this range, on both the lower and higher end. Street doses of fentanyl (mixed into heroin or not) might be in the 500 to 2,000 microgram range, although beware of this claim. Over multi-hour open heart surgeries, patients might get 250 to 500 micrograms of fentanyl total. When anesthesiologists knock you out for surgery, they start with 25 micrograms…wait a few minutes…then give another 25 micrograms for a total of 50 micrograms. Even half that amount will put you at death’s door. One thousand micrograms is very likely to stop your breathing and kill you. These estimates are for non-tolerant opioid users. chemists, to estimate how much fentanyl will kill you. It’s much less than you think - especially if you’re a new user or one who hasn’t used recently.
Harm Reduction Ohio reviewed all available research and worked with an anesthesiologist, plus two Ph.D.