Prohibition kills: spiked heroin.

AuthorSullum, Jacob
PositionCitings - Brief article

REMEMBER THE guy who bought 80-proof vodka that turned out to be 190-proof Everclear and died from alcohol poisoning? Probably not, because that sort of thing almost never happens in a legal market, where merchants or manufacturers who made such a substitution, deliberately or accidentally, would face potentially ruinous economic and legal consequences. In a black market, by contrast, customers frequently get something different from what they thought they were buying: something weaker, something stronger, or some other substance entirely.

As The Washington Post noted in September, the results can be fatal. Fentanyl, a synthetic painkiller, is around 40 times as strong as pure heroin. Heroin dealers therefore have been known to mix fentanyl into their product, giving it an extra kick that partly makes up for the dilution that occurs between production and retail sale. The Post cited three fatal overdoses involving fentanyl-spiked heroin in New York and Connecticut, plus other cases where users "had to be resuscitated at hospitals."

Although...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT