The Feds have arrested two men selling “Breaking Bad” heroin in Duchess County in Northern New York. Unfortunately the chemistry behind their product was way too potent. Theirs was adulterated with fentanyl, an extremely powerful opioid. Heroin is around 5 times stronger than morphine, and they added fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50-100 times stronger than morphine.
Visualize a tiny little Vicodin tablet, now crush it up. Now divide it into 50 tiny equal piles. That infinitesimal bit of dust is the equivalent dose in fentanyl. It’s no wonder 3 people overdosed.
Testing for the presence of fentanyl can be difficult, and no test is perfect. Without going to a university to bribe a lab tech, you can order testing reagents from online vendors. Reagents are made with sulphuric acid. Handle with care and latex gloves. Do testing on a white ceramic plate and use a pinhead’s worth. With Marquis reagent, fentanyl will turn from orange to brown, while heroin goes from bright red to purple. Mecke reagent has no reaction to fentanyl while heroin turns green/blueish. Try not to die.
