Fentanyl and the Opioid Epidemic

About this episode:

Last year, 107,543 Americans died from overdoses—over 75,000 from fentanyl—nearly double the deaths from car accidents or gun homicides in 2023.

In Canada, the numbers are similarly astronomical. Last week, in the largest drug bust in Canadian history, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police seized enough fentanyl to kill the entire Canadian population twice.

Fentanyl deaths have marched upward in Australia and many European countries as well. Ten years ago, fentanyl and its analogues overtook heroin to become the deadliest drug in Sweden.

“Fentanyl is the game changer,” Special Agent in Charge James Hunt of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) told Vice News. “It’s the most dangerous substance in the history of drug tracking. Heroin and cocaine pale in comparison to how dangerous fentanyl is.”

To make matters worse, fentanyl, once cut into heroin, is now often mixed into meth and cocaine, fueling rising death counts—a troubling shift, as many more people are likely to try these drugs than heroin.

Ben Westhoff is a best-selling investigative journalist focused on drugs, culture, and poverty. His book Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Created the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic is the bombshell first book about fentanyl. Since the book’s publication, Westhoff has advised top government officials on the fentanyl crisis, including from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and the U.S. Senate. His website is benwesthoff.com and his Substack: Drugs + Hip-Hop.

He joins us on the show to discuss the crisis, including his experiences inside Chinese labs that produce fentanyl.