Fentanyl, Inc
how rogue chemists are creating the deadliest wave of the opioid epidemic
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- €14.99
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- €14.99
Publisher Description
A riveting and deeply human examination of the synthetic-drug epidemic — and in particular the rise of fentanyl, the newest and most deadly wave of the opioid crisis.
A new crop of chemicals is radically changing the recreational-drug landscape. Known as Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS), these chemicals include replacements for known drugs like cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana, and heroin. They are synthetic, made in a laboratory, and are much more potent than traditional drugs — and, all too often, they are tragically lethal. Fentanyl, Inc. is the first deep-dive investigation of a hazardous illicit industry that has created a worldwide epidemic, ravaging communities and overwhelming and confounding the government agencies that are challenged to combat it.
Drugs like fentanyl, with arcane acronyms like 4-ANPP, K2, and NBOMe, were all originally developed in legitimate laboratories for proper medicinal purposes. Their formulas were then hijacked by rogue chemists, largely in China but increasingly in other places, too, who change their molecular structures to stay ahead of the law, a process that makes the drugs’ effects impossible to predict. Westhoff has infiltrated this shadowy world. In Fentanyl, Inc., he recounts how he tracked down a mysterious drug baron in New Zealand who unintentionally sparked one aspect of the synthetic-drug revolution. He visits the shady factories in China from which these drugs emanate, providing startling and original reporting on how China's vast chemical industry operates. He chronicles the lives of addicts and dealers, families of victims, law enforcement officers, and underground drug-awareness organisers in the U.S. and Europe.
Together, they provide the shocking full picture of a calamity we are only just beginning to understand. And yet from its depths, as Westhoff relates, are emerging new strategies that may provide essential long-term solutions to the drug crisis that has affected so many.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Investigative journalist Westhoff explores the many-tentacled world of illicit opioids, from the streets of East St. Louis to Chinese pharmaceutical companies, from music festivals deep in the Michigan woods to sanctioned "shooting up rooms" in Barcelona, in this frank, insightful, and occasionally searing expos . Westhoff narrates the dangerous rise of fentanyl alongside the emergence of a wide variety of other synthetic drugs, including cannabinoids and novel-psychoactive substances (NPS), that are fast becoming readily accessible. Interviewing over 160 people, including the chemists who create the drugs and the dealers who distribute them, as well as users and law enforcement, Westhoff offers a truly multifaceted view of the landscape of fentanyl use and abuse. The disparate narrative strands he weaves together including tragic stories of drug users, straightforward analysis of the history of opioid use, tension-filled episodes of drug runs and supplier meet-ups, and the humane and hopeful work of the "harm reduction" movement all come together to provide a more complex understanding of the rise of, and response to, the opioid epidemic. Westhoff's well-reported and researched work will likely open eyes, slow knee-jerk responses, and start much needed conversations.)
