General stupid question ...

[marble falls]

... how necessary is fentanyl in American medical treatment?

[DemMedic]

1. We use it in 911 in place of morpihine

It works faster, and has a shorter duration.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. Being able to administer it through skin patches is a game changer in a lot of applications.

[marble falls]

3. Why is it so over produced past the therapeutic use? Admittedly: I assume that other pharmaceutical companies are ...

... purposely over producing at almost a same amount of the Oxycontin was legally produced by Purdue. And more than three times the amount having been prescribed. The Sacklers avoided jail but are now suing in Federal courts to keep their personal fortunes made from engaging in drug crime and not hand it over as a fruit of an ongoing criminal enterprised.

Not even China's part in exporting it to Mexico, or some synthetic black lab production all over the planet.

[MineralMan]

4. It is not expensive and can be administered by skin patch.

That makes it exceptionally useful in end-of-life comfort care.

It has grown in use in the black drug market because it is far easier to make that most other opioids. It's also lethal at a small dosage, which makes it very dangerous, since the illegal drug trade isn't very good at distributing such low-dose drugs. End users really have no idea how much fentanyl they're getting from any batch of street fentanyl. So, users are dying.