WASHINGTON - Fentanyl has surpassed heroin as the deadliest drug in the United States, taking more than 18,000 lives in 2016, federal health officials said Wednesday.
In 2016, the latest year for which full data is available, "29 percent of all drug overdose deaths mentioned involvement of fentanyl," said the report from the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Fentanyl is a powerful, synthetic narcotic that has been blamed for the deaths of rock stars including Prince and Tom Petty.
It works on the brain like morphine or heroin, but is 50 to 100 times more potent, and can easily lead to overdose.
https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/12/13/18/fentanyl-surpasses-heroin-as-deadliest-drug-in-us?fbclid=IwAR1eGVYngZeEA8OmsGao8OJW4VtW5aJiU00yQhzPBdMTDLwTzLhVGJaI6qc
