“Shop Until You Drop”: Valuing Fentanyl Analogs on a Swedish Internet Forum

• DOI: 10.1177/0022042620964129
• Author: Bengt Svensson,Kim Moeller
• Published date: 01 January 2021
• Date: 01 January 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0022042620964129

Journal of Drug Issues

2021, Vol. 51(1) 181 –195

© The Author(s) 2020

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0022042620964129

journals.sagepub.com/home/jod

Article

“Shop Until You Drop”:

Valuing Fentanyl Analogs

on a Swedish Internet Forum

Kim Moeller1 and Bengt Svensson1

Abstract

Fentanyl analogs are synthetic opioids used for pain treatment and palliative care, which are also

sought after by drug users for their psychoactive properties. Clandestinely produced fentanyl

has caused an overdose crises of unprecedented scale in the United States. In Sweden, the

retail purchase, possession, and use of some analogs are legal, providing opiate users with a legal

alternative, until the process of scheduling is finished. The continuous process of scheduling

and introduction of slightly modified variants implies that there is much uncertainty regarding

the potency and quality of newly introduced analogs. We examine user perceptions of fentanyl

analogs in a thematic analysis of the public internet forum, Flashback, from 2012 to 2019. In 24

threads on fentanyl analogs, posters shared and discussed information on the emergence of new

analogs, their desirability and prices, adverse health effects, and eventual scheduling.

Keywords

fentanyl, synthetic opioids, new psychoactive substances, economic sociology, thematic analysis

Introduction

The synthetic opioid, fentanyl, has several analogs that are 3 to 10,000 times more potent than

morphine (Suzuki & El-Haddad, 2017), much cheaper than heroin and easily available online

(Pardo et al., 2019). In the United States, fentanyl is often disguised in the heroin supply

because it is a cheap way for distributors to increase the potency (Mars et al., 2019). This adul-

teration has caused “the worst drug-related crisis in history” (Beletsky & Davis, 2017, p. 156),

characterized by unprecedented high rates of fatal overdoses (Suzuki & El-Haddad, 2017).

These intoxications are not from pharmaceutical fentanyl, diverted from licit use in the health

care sector, but from clandestinely manufactured analogs (Lucyk & Nelson, 2017; Mounteney

et al., 2015). These non-pharmaceutical fentanyl analogs are fast becoming an international

problem.

In Sweden, the location for the present study, fatal opioid overdoses increased by 18%

annually, from 102 deaths in 2004 to 507 in 2014, corresponding to 5.3 per 100,000 popula-

tion. Fentanyl analogs were believed to play an important part in this increase (Guerrieri et al.,

2017). Sweden is generally known for its strict drug control policy (Moeller, 2019), but new

1Malmö University, Sweden

Corresponding Author:

Kim Moeller, Department of Criminology, Malmö University, 205 06 Malmö, Sweden.

Email: Kim.moeller@mau.se

964129JODXXX10.1177/0022042620964129Journal of Drug IssuesMoeller and Svensson

research-article2020