Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic

by Ben Westhoff

A remarkable four-year investigation into the dangerous world of synthetic drugs―from black market drug factories in China to users and dealers on the streets of the U.S. to harm reduction activists in Europe―which reveals for the first time the next wave of the opioid epidemic A deeply human story, Fentanyl, Inc. is the first deep-dive investigation of a hazardous and illicit industry that has created a worldwide epidemic, ravaging communities and overwhelming and confounding government agencies that are challenged to combat it. “A whole new crop of chemicals is radically changing the recreational drug landscape,” writes Ben Westhoff. “These are known as Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) and they include replacements for known drugs like heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, and marijuana. They are synthetic, made in a laboratory, and are much more potent than traditional drugs”―and all-too-often tragically lethal. Drugs like fentanyl, K2, and Spice―and those with arcane acronyms like 25i-NBOMe― were all originally conceived in legitimate laboratories for proper scientific and medicinal purposes. Their formulas were then hijacked and manufactured by rogue chemists, largely in China, who change their molecular structures to stay ahead of the law, making the drugs’ effects impossible to predict. Westhoff has infiltrated this shadowy world. He tracks down the little-known scientists who invented these drugs and inadvertently killed thousands, as well as a mysterious drug baron who turned the law upside down in his home country of New Zealand. Westhoff visits the shady factories in China from which these drugs emanate, providing startling and original reporting on how China’s vast chemical industry operates, and how the Chinese government subsidizes it. Poignantly, he chronicles the lives of addicted users and dealers, families of victims, law enforcement officers, and underground drug awareness organizers in the U.S. and Europe. Together they represent the shocking and riveting full anatomy of a calamity we are just beginning to understand. From its depths, as Westhoff relates, are emerging new strategies that may provide essential long-term solutions to the drug crisis that has affected so many.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History, True Crime, Politics, Drugs, Crime

352 pages, Paperback

First published September 3, 2019

About the author

Ben Westhoff's new book Little Brother: Love, Tragedy, and My Search For the Truth (May 24, 2022, Hachette Books) is a true crime memoir detailing his investigation into the unsolved killing of Jorell Cleveland, Westhoff's mentee in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program for 11 years. His previous book Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic (Grove Atlantic) is the highly-acclaimed, bombshell first book about fentanyl, which is causing the worst drug crisis in American history. It has received glowing reviews, was included on many year-end best lists, and Westhoff was featured on NPR's Fresh Air and Joe Rogan's podcast. He now speaks around the country about the fentanyl crisis, and has advised top government officials on the problem, including from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and the U.S. State Department.

Westhoff's previous book Original Gangstas: Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, and the Birth of West Coast Rap is one of the best-selling hip-hop books of all time and has been translated into multiple languages, receiving top reviews from Rolling Stone, People, Kirkus, and others. S. Leigh Savidge, Academy Award nominee and co-writer of Straight Outta Compton said it "may be the best book ever written about the hip hop world."

Westhoff is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, the Library of Congress, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Rolling Stone, Vice, and others. His 2011 book on southern hip-hop, Dirty South: OutKast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip-Hop was a Library Journal best seller.

Subscribe to Westhoff's newsletter at benwesthoff.substack.com

Reviews

[Mario the lone bookwolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Until now at least the border controls and ever better satellite technology to find the growing regions could limit the dimension of the drug trade. I mean, except with meth and chemical drugs and... With this new, emerging production capacities, everyone willing everywhere on the planet will get capable of becoming a tiny version of Pablo Escobar.

Like all good books about organized crime that dig deep and show both the personal tragedies of all affected and integrated and the global dimension and potential for destruction, it leaves the reader speechless after finishing it. It might lead to questions of how to deal with this problem in the future, what might go wrong in crime prevention, substitution programs and probably society too.

But as soon as a topic has taken over the mind, it starts rotating and leads to the wonderful realm of subjective extrapolations and, my absolute favorite, future settings, as following:

Organized crime becomes an early adopter of modern technology and with 3D printing, bioreactors, fermenters and harmless and legal commodities, there is a huge market to operate in.

That is the dark side of personalized medicine, better pharmacy and general technological progress and one of the best ways to minimize harm may be the development of better agents against overdoses or, in farther future, something like an implanted scanning device that prevents that drug user kill themselves.

But at the moment, organized crime has seen it´s chance to produce more and more drugs cheap, in just one place and without hardly any chance of getting caught. The advancements in biotech, AI and microelectronic have made it possible to create huge amounts of pure, extremely potent drugs that will float the markets. I believe that there might already be programs and intelligent software on the dark market, that coordinate large scale production machinery with a few chemists, bioengineers and programmers for finetuning. Just imagine the potential in contrast to conventional drug production that is limited in quantity because of the areas where the plants can grow. This new way of manufacturing has the potential to run 24/7 forever and produce a vast amount of nearly any drug.

Meth is a precursor of this development and in its case, some of the ingredients are still difficult and conspicuous to get in large amounts. The logical final step is and will be to produce the more dangerous ingredients next to the real drug production and this will be a lab too well-conceived and too unobtrusive to be found without traitors. And until then there will be enough corrupt countries and companies that are willing to produce anything needed for enough money.

Probably users may produce both the drugs and the antidote at home, with a special chemistry lab for synthetic drugs and a bioreactor with genetic engineered microorganisms for polydrug use. Yeast has already been genetically engineered to produce opioids and that is just the beginning. No matter if the required machines are sold on the black market, homemade with the help of internet tutorials or modified, legal versions of official products, it will happen. Humans have taken drugs and will keep on taking drugs and there is a positive aspect too.

To produce your own medicine could be a part of a self-sustainable society in which everyone gets the right dose of the right medicine at the right time. And the freedom of choice to use drugs responsibly and without harming others and oneself just moderate is so complex that a state with its laws and bureaucracy shouldn´t be the final instance to decide. Healthy adults should simply have the right to, under the supervisory of a kind of AI or, as mentioned, implanted chip, or, oldfashioned, trip sitters, to experiment if they want to, because it is their body and their free choice. Of course, all this is just right as long as we talk about not deadly, primarily psychoactive, not addictive, already in therapy used drugs and not hard drugs. Someone could probably produce both the drug and anti withdrawal drugs and antipsychotic drugs at the same time to consume it all to avoid addiction and getting too psychotic, but that may not be the right solution just to be able to take meth, heroin and crack cocaine.

Is there any solution to the problem? As seen in the chapter about the Chinese factories producing huge amounts of chemicals, nope. This production line can be built anywhere and thanks to sustainable, free energy, in every no man´s land too. The only solution may be a fairer society so that humans don´t need deadly stuff to flee reality. And not allowing pharma companies because of lobby influence to become the largest heroin dealer in history may be a beginning too. Because in Europe, pain patients seem to be treatable without beeing turned into junkies, just as it was a few years ago in the US because simple common sense tells one that hard drugs should not be legalized.

Other books about the topic:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real-life outside books:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...

In a nutshell made videos about the topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJUXL...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8AHO...

[BlackOxford · Rating 3 out of 5]

What Marx Never Considered

The war on drugs is a war on global capitalism. Few want to make the connection, largely, I think, because it would make clear the futility of the effort. Westhoff sees how drugs and capitalism are related: “More than anything, this is a story of global capitalism run amok... if global capitalism is hard to control, the new-drugs trade is nearly impossible,” he says. But Westhoff then proceeds as if there were some hope in dealing with drug use as a problem of law and public health policy. Control is not almost but entirely impossible according to his own analysis. Drug use is not a disease; it is a part of the larger ideology of capitalism. Like all ideologies, drugs have their own logic which is impervious to external criticism or internal correction.

Westhoff’s title accurately represents the issue. The remarkable spread of opioid use in the last 20 years - not just opioids but a plethora of recreational highs - has been fuelled not by consumer demand or cultural deterioration but by corporate resources. Synthetic drug development is a component of the worldwide corporate economy as important as computer and communications technology. From basic innovation, through commercial development, to global distribution, the patterns of corporate actions and reactions are identical in the two industries.

Synthetic drugs are not sourced by uneducated and oppressed farmers in Pakistan or Columbia. They originate in corporate laboratories. They are chemical inventions initially requiring advanced knowledge to create. Competition is fierce, both to be the low cost producer, and to eliminate or evade the regulatory restrictions. With patent protection largely unavailable, continuous invention is essential. It takes organisational skill not criminal muscle to participate in this market successfully. Scientific research, legal expertise, and political lobbying as well as an acute feel for the market must be finely coordinated to ensure staying ahead of the commercial curve.

The Sackler family pioneered the mass opioid revolution with the development and marketing of its now notorious OxyContin. But OxyContin is only the pharmaceutical equivalent of the Model T Ford - first off the high volume production line but technologically rather primitive. An international industry has sprouted which now produces an extensive line of high-tech synthetic products. Consumer choice has never been greater. Just as ‘any colour as long as it’s black’ was archaic almost as soon as Henry Ford uttered it, so drug design has become far more sophisticated than even the Sacklers had imagined. They have been left in the corporate dust by smaller, more nimble, more creative producers - just as IBM had been leapfrogged by Microsoft and Apple.

In the designer drug business, just as in any high-tech enterprise, the genius in the garage has the innovative edge over the established producer. This is an implicit principle of capitalism. It is what keeps capitalism alive. And like an Ayn Rand protagonist, if the genius can’t get his bureaucratic colleagues in industry or academia to support him, there is no need to stick around. The entrepreneurial spirit is nowhere better demonstrated than in the start-up of a promising new line of untested compounds. So-called ‘psychonauts,’ the avant-garde of the drug community, abound as volunteers for commercial Beta-testing. Risk of death is considered part of the fun.

Apparently there is plenty of unused garage space in places like China. The chemistry of psychoactive substances is, although few seem to notice, a matter of intellectual capital. It is knowledge that can be located anywhere, and transferred instantaneously anywhere else. Once a compound’s chemical composition and physical effects are known, large scale production is simpler than making bathtub gin during Prohibition or old-fashioned moonshine in the mountains. Formulas, recipes, and manufacturing techniques aren’t subject to customs inspections. Patent infringements are hardly a worry in a world of unrestricted trade under the table. Advertising is unnecessary, and there is no such thing as bad product placement: “If addicts find something that killed somebody, they flock to it,”

The laws directed toward restriction of the designer drug market are either stupid and ill-informed (Ecstasy), often unenforceable or producing paradoxical effects (criminalisation of analogues) or hopelessly naive (banning ‘how-to’ cookbooks). Lab-based drugs, unlike plant-based ones, don’t have a material supply chain that can be interrupted. Distribution can be controlled locally in a sort of guerilla-organisation which is highly mobile. Transactions are handled through the untraceable dark net in crypto-currency.

In short, the synthetic drug industry is unstoppable. Either attempts to control it will consume an unacceptably large amount of resources; or it continues to expand uncontrollably based on good commercial logic. Or both. This is capitalism threatening capitalism in a way Karl Marx never considered. He also never considered that socialism would take the same corporate form as capitalism. No one has yet come up with an alternative to our current ideology of corporate economy. Perhaps that must wait until the drug crisis becomes more pressing. Meanwhile we all tread water in a deepening pool of synthetic happiness.

Postscript: this article appeared in my newsfeed five minutes after posting this review: https://apple.news/A25KW860CQQGu8pIrj...

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A far reaching and impeccably researched book on our current opioid epidemic. I've heard of fentanyl, in fact I've heard of many of the drugs discussed within this book. What I didn't realize was how far reaching the drug problem is, not contained to just the US but so many other countries as well, from Sweden to New Zealand. Just how many designer, synthetic drugs are in existence, how for every drug made illegal, another is waiting to take its place.

This is a comprehensive view of the drug trade, the chemists and manufacturers who make them, to how they are marketed, effect their users and the history of some of these drugs. Some made for good, medical purposes, but a small change in the drugs chemical makeup and it becomes a powerful street drug. It's almost overwhelming, how can this wave of new drugs ever be stopped. I was also surprised that many of these powerful drugs are coming from and produced in China.

The author does provide some solutions to better handling of the drug crisis. Not sure how these would work but better control over the drugs people are taking, treatment rather than just punishment, may be a better way than how it is handled now. Some users actually do not know s drug is tampered with, until it is too late, so a place where they could come and use their drugs under the view of qualified personnel may help. I don't know, but this book is alarming and at this point anything that can be tried, should be. Very eye opening, and frightening both, well worth reading.


ARC from Edelweiss.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

Westhoff goes beyond the fentanyl epidemic exploring the ever expanding array of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) formerly known as designer drugs. These drugs are taking over from traditional illegal drugs. They are easily made in labs that are typically in China but can be anywhere. Westhoff describes a huge operation that was in an abandoned missile silo on the plains of Kansas. Today there are many types of synthetic cannabinoids, fentanyl analogues and precursors, acid that is not LSD, synthetic stimulants such as “bath salts”, and mollies that can be almost anything. These drugs are popular for many reasons. Many won’t show up in drug tests. They are cheaper. They are readily available on the dark web and locally they may be all that is available. Of course many are sold as the drug they imitate. Neither the customer nor the dealer may know what is in them. Increased profit motivates producers and dealers to push NPSs.

Take fentanyl for example, a knowledgeable chemist can alter slightly its chemical composition so that it is no longer a scheduled drug. It may be more or less potent and have different side effects, but in many countries it won’t be illegal. In 1986 the Federal Analogue Act made such modified drugs illegal in the U. S., but prosecutions under this law are difficult since it must be proved the perpetrator knew the modified drug was similar to the original. This law did not blunt the proliferation of NPSs. In many countries each new drug must go through a formal procedure to be classified. By the time it is, the chemist can make another analogue. Westhoff identifies six specific analogues of fentanyl which are frequently sold over the web as fentanyl. The same practice applies to LSD, MDMA and other drugs making the whole problem of drug abuse much more difficult to solve.

There is the human toll. Users are much more likely to OD or suffer injury on NPSs than prescription drugs. There is no quality control. The potency of different batches varies widely and the side effects are unknown. Drug enforcement is greatly complicated. Illicit labs can pop up anywhere, but typically where the producers are safe from being charged with a crime. China like many other countries makes drugs illegal one by one. By the time a drug becomes illegal the chemist has already made millions of batches and passed them on to dealers. The drugs are sold on the internet and shipped or mailed to the buyer. There are so many operations doing this that there is little way to stop them.

Westhoff describes a brief policy experiment in New Zealand with respect to MDMA, aka ecstasy or molly. Street ecstasy could contain anything which resulted in ODs and out of control ravers. In 2013 New Zealand allowed some NPSs to be sold regulating dosage, manufacture, where it could be purchased, and user age. This provided a safer source of drugs for users but so many people were lining up to buy the drugs at the few legal outlets and smoking synthetic cannabis or popping pills while in line that many New Zealanders were aghast and the policy was soon rescinded. The black market once again took over.

Even with the growth of web drug sales Mexican cartels still bring large quantities of drugs into the U. S. and Canada. The favorites are still heroin, meth, cocaine and prescription opioids, but now they are cut with fentanyl or its analogues by the cartels and again by their local dealers. Fentanyl is stronger and cheaper. Just like any business, cartels and dealers try to meet user expectations at the lowest cost. The cartels buy fentanyl precursors from China which they can easily synthesize into fentanyl. The Chinese ingredients are typically 90% plus pure. But the cartels cut the fentanyl with quinine and Benadryl. Many addicts who saw their OxyContin supplies cut off by stricter regulations switched to cheaper heroin and now are taking still cheaper fentanyl sometimes knowingly and sometimes not.

Chinese drug abusers favor heroin, meth and ketamine but not fentanyl. Fentanyl is illegal in China except as a prescription. The companies authorized to make prescription fentanyl in China are not the source of illicit fentanyl. Their products are tightly controlled. Other Chinese companies that make fentanyl run the risk of law enforcement. Thus many companies just make precursors which can be easily assembled into fentanyl by the buyer. Many of these precursors are not illegal in China. If one does become scheduled the producers just move on to a different precursor. The U. S has tried to reach agreements with the Chinese government to control these companies with little success. The Chinese attitude is that it is a problem of demand which the U. S. or other countries need to control. If the Chinese did crack down on illicit drug providers India stands ready to take its place.

The U. S. war on drugs has filled the prisons but failed to stem drug abuse. Stop one source and another soon appears. Westhoff looks into harm reduction approaches to at least stem the tide of ODs. The U. S. had over 67,000 overdose deaths in 2018. It has far more ODs than other countries on a per capita basis. The U. S. has allowed needle exchanges which help stop the spread of HIV and hepatitis, but the U. S. does not have supervised injection sites like Canada and many European countries. Making drug testing kits and services available could warn users of toxic chemicals and strong dosages, letting them know just what drugs they are really consuming. In the U.S. independent organizations that try to offer drug testing are not allowed at the big music festivals where drugs are widely consumed. Organizers don’t want to admit that they know drugs will be present. Organizations that offer drug testing are seen by many as enablers that allow people to take drugs safely.

Many European countries have offered services to users that lower deaths, reduce crime and can help people find a way out of addiction. Switzerland goes the farthest providing long term users who have failed treatment prescription grade heroin to be taken under supervision at clinics. This has significantly cut drug dealing and crime. The Netherlands offers a similar program also with good results. When heroin was outlawed in the U. S. in 1914, doctors could still administer it to addicts. When that was disallowed crime and overdoses increased. Spain has centers where users can get their drugs tested and take them under supervision. At these centers the users are offered counseling and substitution therapies such as methadone and buprenorphine.

The difficulty of enforcement begs the whole question of policy. The U. S. war on drugs has never been effective. Current tightening of access to prescription opiates in the U. S. has pushed more people to heroin which is cheaper and often cut with fentanyl. From there they can go to still cheaper readily available fentanyl which may be an analogue. I support Westhoff’s view that we need innovative solutions which don’t treat addicts as criminals and instead offer ways to help them. The public benefits as well with reduced crime. Some countries are taking the lead with effective programs, unfortunately we in the U. S are still filling prisons with users and playing whack a mole with suppliers and getting nowhere.

[Ben Westhoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far the best book I have ever written on this subject.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

*If this review isn’t my best one, I apologize: the topic just hits too hard for me.

A lot of the complaints concerning this book didn’t quite resonate with me. Some suggested it was too technical, while I thought just a basic knowledge of chemistry might be required, given Westhoff goes into enough detail that no matter how much you don’t understand chemistry, you should be able to understand and appreciate the reasoning for why he’s “spending too much time on drugs other than fentanyl.”

That’s the whole point, though. If you want to understand fentanyl, you have to understand NPS and their origin, and why drug dealers once devoted to creating synthetics for MDMA and hallucinogens began turning to opioids instead. For those that criticize him for not addressing Big Pharma’s role in the opioid crisis… did you just blow past the first chapter by scanning the paragraphs?

How exactly is he not calling Purdue and their wonder drug - OxyContin - out for the epidemic that resulted thanks to complete misinformation by the Sackler family and their sales reps which resulted in over prescribing by doctors and the pills being given out like candy?:

”With the inherent conflict of advertising and pharmaceuticals in its DNA, Purdue brought OxyContin to market in 1996, touting its benefits as a slow- release pill that contained high doses of the opioid oxycodone…since the pills lasted 12 hours, the company claimed, patients would need only two per day, fewer than comparable medicines. Addiction, it promised, was extremely rare.

…Sales rose from just under $50 million in 1996 to more than $1 billion by 2000. Oxycodone became the most prescribed drug in the United States. Yet for many patients, the dosages didn’t last an entire half day, and they began experiencing withdrawal symptoms when the pills wore off hours early. And while Purdue salespeople told doctors that less than one percent of OxyContin patients would become addicted, Purdue’s own study from 1999 found the rate to be thirteen percent.”

He goes on:
”Misuse became rampant. Many users crushed the pills into powder form to snort or make into an injectable solution, so they could get higher faster. This is a complex problem. The vast majority of legitimate users of OxyContin and other opioid medicines receive the intended benefit. For the most part, people dying from oxycodone overdoses tend to get the pills on the black market, not their doctors.

Nonetheless, Purdue bears ‘the lions share’ of the blame for America’s opioid crisis once one looks at the prescribing trends for all the different opioids, it’s in 1996 that prescribing really takes off. It’s not a coincidence. That was the year. Purdue launched a multifaceted campaign that misinformed the medical community about the risks.”

He doesn’t need to elaborate further on the Sackler family and their obvious role in bringing the crisis about to start with. There’s already entire books devoted to this subject, and besides, not only has it become painfully obvious that the Sacklers will never truly have to answer for their crimes, it’s also become painfully obvious that the FDA has all but eliminated the prescription of OxyContin outside hospitals and hospice… meaning, why dwell on something that is no longer killing people on any grand scale?

Westhoff rightfully only briefly mentions OxyContin and its misuse, along with its disappearance from the street (as well as heroin) - because these are not what’s causing the historically high levels of overdose rates throughout American communities anymore. Rather, the inability to access these drugs has led to people being left with only fentanyl as an option, one most users wouldn’t prefer if given the choice, but the choice isn’t there.

Yes, OxyContin may have been incredibly addictive, but it doesn’t come close to the potency of some of these new synthetic opioids made to emulate the effects of Fentanyl and OxyContin (capital F refers to the prescription transdermal patches given out for pain that are intended to be affixed to one’s skin, where over the course of 72 hours, the gel in the patch makes its way into the body).

What’s happened is, people have learned how to synthesize opioids without using a precursor - avoiding the tedious process of needing to secure poppy plants in a suitable environment for growth and instead simply developing these new drugs in a laboratory.

What makes them so dangerous and puts American drug enforcement agencies in over their heads, is the fact that anyone can make them, and fentanyl is produced by the microgram - so all of the calls for border security aren’t helping, given that not only is most of it being brought in by legal residents (usually on work visas), but it’s also so minuscule in size that no border or drug patrol can effectively find all of the well-stashed drugs in the same way they can easily locate a huge brick of cocaine or heroin.

Also, as Westhoff points out, given the new analogue drugs are chemical compounds, all a drug manufacturing company needs to do is to alter one chemical and replace it with one of many, many, similar (yet often untested and deadlier) chemicals to produce a nearly identical drug. So that’s the sad truth, if you’re paying attention: countries that have accepted drug use as an inevitability and treat it more in terms of harm reduction as opposed to criminalization are experiencing far less problems with fatal overdoses as we are here in the US.

As the author says - I believe - this is not a problem that the government and law enforcement can arrest their way out of. Unfortunately, I don’t harbor as much hope as the author and others: the US has been so hung up on this “war on drugs” nonsense that it’s just recently starting to realize is completely ineffective.

Yes, like it or not, these drugs will need to become legalized or at least decriminalized, if we are to expect the overdose numbers to go down and people to actually have government oversight into what they’re using. Unfortunately, I don’t see this happening in the near future, given we’re still not even completely accepting of marijuana as a medicinal drug that doesn’t carry any serious risk of death or addiction.

I’m sorry for my language, but I get to say this, given I lost the person I love most to this bullshit not even five full months ago: FUCK FENTANYL, FUCK THE SYNTHETICS, FUCK THE TRAFFICKERS. People who want to still talk about OxyContin have the completely wrong idea. In three years, OxyContin never caused an OD to this person I’m referencing… yet three and a half months was all it took for this new crap to take him away forever. I’d gladly bring OxyContin back if it was the only way to get rid of this dirty new substitute. 4 1/2 stars.

I’m grateful for the fact that Westhoff didn’t make the book overwhelmingly about personal tragedy. I’ve dealt with enough of my own that I really don’t need to read about other people’s pain nonstop to understand, although my heart is obviously with them.

[Taury · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an addiction counselor this book was fascinating! Well written, easy to read and understand, but most of all well researched. I have heard of most of the drugs mentioned. Most of my patients have used fentanyl. That is about all you can find in my part of the world. Literally 90% of all drugs on the street (in my area) is laced with Fentanyl. All it takes is 2mg to kill an average person. Now that is a crazy sad stat.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very insightful book into the world of synthetic drug abuse. I administer drugs (fentanyl, oxycontin) to my patients at my work so I'm always interested in learning more about them. I never knew there was a whole different world out there with these drugs centered for recreational use instead of pain killing!

This book is pretty heavy on the facts and can be a little confusing with all of the drugs names. It's very interesting if you're interested in drugs and abuse, but don't pick it up if you're just expecting to read user stories. The author tries to find out where the drugs and compounds are made and travels to China to talk to the people selling and producing them, which is very interesting to read. So, great book for those looking to learn about the origin of recreational drugs and how "common" pain killers can also be abused.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. 🌟

[Gator · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fentanyl, Inc. By Ben Westhoff published 2019.

This was exactly the type of book I was searching for. Since I am not in the drug culture I only know what I hear and what I hear often times is very confusing, especially when it comes to all the names of drugs that are in circulation. As most people who are kept busy with the daily grind I knew of the drug basics like weed, coke, H, meth, crack, LSD..... you know the things we���ve all heard about growing up in modern times. While in high school (I’ve been out for almost 20 years now, I am 36) we started to receive information about the dangerous of pills, I especially remember someone from our school dying from
An Oxy overdose, and I remember that teens mom taking the podium at our high school and talking to us about her son and the dangerous of messing around with these pills. Recently just a few months ago my neighbor, who was my lawn guy, overdosed on meth cut with Fentanyl, which is why I am here writing this review. After My neighbor Kevin passed away I felt a strong desire to find out what the hell is going on and so I started reading books about drugs. My first was Dreamland, AMAZING book, my second was Dope Sick, another great book, and this is my third, and this is the winner as far as information goes. The kind of intel I was searching for wasn’t in the first two books, their focus was on different topics, (Both essential and perfect for the lead up to this book.) I was searching for the information on the synthetic stuff that’s making people go nuts and eat people faces off, (as seen on YouTube) the stuff making people pass out over cars and fire hydrants by the dozens outside of head shops (as seen on YouTube) the stuff making people drop like flys by the tens of thousands here in the Addicted States of America. I FOUND IT!!!! It’s almost as if the book was published just for me, it was On pre order when I began my search so I bought it and waited and in the mean time read the first two mentioned above, but this here Fentanyl, Inc. is the one.
The author gets into serious detail about the synthetics from A-Z, this guy did his homework.
Not only did he do his homework but he traveled to China to infiltrate chemical companies that produce Fentanyl among other things and get the real scoop straight from the number one supplier of Fentanyl to the west. I am really impressed with his research and dedication to finding the truth about all this, id like to Personally thank him for a job well done. I’ve learned all I need up-to this point about what I was looking to learn. If you are confused about all these synthetic drugs that have bombarded the news over the past couple of years then this is the book for you, it’s fantastic.
My beef with the book is it ends the way it starts with a story about the first Fentanyl overdose victim, but I feel the end is abrupt, not bad just too quick for me, no finesse. Second the author gives some advice for what he thinks would be a good way to approach fixing the problem however it’s too progressive for me and seems like it’s just more government breathing down our necks and setting up shop in a neighborhood near you (safe injection sites, Methadone clinics...) I don’t have the answers and truthfully I don’t like any of the solutions, it’s all quite repulsive to me and I’d prefer it didn’t exist, the drugs the junkies the deaths, however I am not naïve and I realize these issues aren’t going away any time soon. As a matter of fact from what I can gather its gonna get a lot worse before (if) it gets better. I don’t have any answers or solutions because this is one big colossal mess we as a culture are in. Having said all
Of this I feel good about the knowledge I’ve extracted from this particular book(s) so I’m just gonna buckle up and look out the window and go for a ride, Let’s see where time takes us. Oh yeah, JUST SAY NO TO DRUGS !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Malia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little too technical and long-winded at times, but overall, a thorough and very informative read. I would probably recommend Travis Rieder's "In Pain" and "Dopesick" by Beth Macy before I recommended this, because they were a little less clinical, and more compassionate and thoughtful. That being said, Fentanyl, Inc. is still worth reading, and certainly provides an in-depth look at the opioid epidemic. In the midst of the turmoil 2020 has brought, this crisis has gone under a bit, but it's important to remember this is still real, people are still suffering and something can still be done to turn things around.

Find my book reviews and more at http://www.princessandpen.com

[Rama Rao · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Fentanyl Crisis

On April 15, 2016, on his way home after performing in Atlanta, pop entertainer Prince's plane made an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois. He was found unresponsive and taken to a local hospital. Six days later, he passed away. Toxicology reports revealed that an overdose of opioid Fentanyl caused his demise. In January 2015, Bailey Henke, an 18-year-old kid from Grand Forks. North Dakota overdosed himself to death causing deep sorrow and dolor for his parents.

These new drugs aren't grown in a field; they are made in a laboratory. Plants that yield marijuana and heroin were grown in Mexico and Latin America, but Fentanyl is manufactured in laboratories in China. The author dares to infiltrate Chinese drug operations, a sophisticated laboratory operation distilling outsize quantities of the world's most dangerous chemicals in industrial-size glassware. The Chinese drug industry is not run by cartels and criminal organizations, but by university-educated chemists who often play by their government's rules.

Many health-care workers who help treat substance abusers believe the American traditional focus on “supply-side” law enforcement, which emphasizes the prosecution over treatment is futile. This approach fails to address the root of the problem: demand, and under-funded addiction treatment programs. Other alternative harm-reduction program is taking center stage in combating opioid addiction. Experts agree that it would be easy to establish supervised-injection facilities for opioid-ravaged communities in the United States to create one-stop shops where people could test their heroin and fentanyl exchange needle and shoot up safely. These facilities are showing a track record of success, but federal and many state authorities are not enthusiastic. The tension is encapsulated in an October 2018 exchange when former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell announced that he had incorporated a nonprofit seeking private funding to open a supervised injection facility in Philadelphia. The US deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein angrily said that if one opened it would be immediately shut down by federal authorities. "I've got a message for Mr. Rosenstein," Rendell said, "They can come and arrest me first."

How is that lethal synthetic opioid is creating a global drug addiction crisis? The author presents a grim picture of the origin of the epidemic. He observes that the harm-reduction initiatives remain diluted beneath the shifting weight and influence of political red tape, global capitalism, and the biological and psychological bondage of drug dependency. He visits the shady factories in China from which these drugs emanate, providing startling and original reporting on how China's vast chemical industry operates. He chronicles the lives of addicts and dealers, families of victims, law enforcement officers, and underground drug-awareness organizers in the U.S. and Europe. This is a fascinating book that reads flawlessly and touches your consciousness when you read the stories of families affected by this tragedy.

[Morgan Blackledge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly engaging investigative journalism on the BOOMING synthetic drug trade.

As one would reasonably expect, the book is very focused on Fentanyl.

But not exclusively.

The broad focus of the book is synthetic (chemical) drugs including: salts, spice, K2 and yes, of course, fentanyl.

Their DEVASTATING impact.

Their industrial scale, government sanctioned and subsidized production in China.

And.

Their distribution via the dark web.

If you’re interested in these subjects.

This is a FUCKING great book.

I couldn’t put it down.

5/5

[Mark Dunn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The West is not engaged in a Third Opium War with China. Unlike cigarette smokers drug abusers are wonderful people they are not morally deficient they are better than everybody else they are psychonauts. Harsh criminal drug laws only work in the third world countries. How many Americans flock to Indonesia or Russia to deal drugs? Other people's money should be used to make durg abuse safer and more comfortable and the drugs should be free. You have to go to college to be wrong about so many things.

[Alex Givant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy shit, what a ride! Drug users, China chemical producer making precursors for fentanyl (which is legal to produce in China and even government subsidy provided in form of tax cuts), Mexican cartels (main supplier to USA), Chinese gangs in Vancouver (main supplier to Canada), people who try to save kids on rave parties by supplying test kits and get kicked out and threaten to be sued.

According to this book fentanyl is more powerful and dangerous then cocaine, heroine and meth. I've never heard about it before this book, it's like an eye-opener.

[Ginni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Turns out, fentanyl is bad. Who knew? (But in all seriousness, this is top-notch journalism. Also, there was a lot more China in this book than I expected.)

[Kirsti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fentanyl is the drug nobody wants. Users prefer heroin, MDMA, other lab-made drugs, or sometimes meth. But fentanyl is so easy to smuggle and so profitable that dealers sell it under many other names. Unlike most other drugs (flakka, meow meow, and so on), it doesn't even have a street name.

This is a fascinating combination of economics, science, politics, and individual human stories. The author goes to different countries to find out how drugs are made and what can be done to reduce the overdose rate.

[M.N. Cox]

This is a fascinating book though it's heavy - with its message, it’s story and on information - so I read it bit by bit over a month. Though it’s called Fentanyl, Inc. the book covers more than just that. Fentanyl is a great focus because it has been described by the DEA as “the serial killer of the drug world”. No kidding. It’s potent - deadly in microscopic amounts - and it is turning up everywhere: In heroin, cocaine and even in pills made to look like prescription medications. The biggest problem is that if a person doesn’t know a product contains Fentanyl, then overdose likelihood is greatly increased.

What the book is really focused on, beyond fentanyl, is synthetic drugs. The landscape has transformed since I was young and people smoked pot and occasionally died from heroin overdoses. When I say that I’m not trying to gloss over it or minimise it. Just make the point that shit got worse. Much worse. Now the market is flooding with synthetic drugs that have no basis in nature, where as soon as one drug becomes illegal the manufacturers make a small chemical change to create a new, untested, drug that hasn’t come to the attention of authorities and is, therefore, still legal. As David Nichols put it “make one drug illegal, and a more dangerous one will take its place,” It’s really confusing - and it’s a game that can’t be won. Now that this is happening its pretty much impossible to ‘catch up’. That’s where we’re at.

Westhoff tells us that most traditional drugs now have synthetic versions. Cannabis has cannabinoids and yes, they’ve caused considerable health problems. What became clear from reading Fentanyl, Inc. was that when the traditional drugs such as heroin and cannabis are unavailable, the new synthetic drugs take their place whether buyers want them, or not. There seems to be some opiate abusers who like fentanyl because it’s a stronger drug but the message I got from the book overall was that most people prefer the traditional version for which the dose is longer lasting and does not come with the same risks.

My one complaint

My one big gripe is this: On page 49 Westhoff links fentanyl with the novichok Skripal poisoning. This is still bothering me because when I googled fentanyl + skripal the only sites linking them are “alternative” news sites. The kind of sites I would not go to looking for facts (and I wish that no one did). I had a crisis of faith when I read that, but I did push on and found that Westhoff drew from many sources including drug users, families of those who have died from overdose, drug dealers, manufacturers, those involved in the war on drugs and those who work in harm reduction. He visited laboratories and even went undercover. The book overall was thorough and was well written. I appreciated it, but I would still like to hear how fentanyl became linked to the Skripal event!

Fentanyl, Inc. was hard to follow sometimes but that is the nature of this story. The whole synthetic drug thing (including fentanyl) is a cluster f***. And it's scary. I was looking forward to hearing about solutions and the ones given were those on which I was already pretty much sold. I have fears and concerns about some harm reduction policies BUT I don’t see a better way. I already believe it’s the way forward and I believe that more so with my new found understanding of how out of control things are now that synthetic drugs are flooding the market.


I read this book thanks to a giveaway. Thank you Scribe Publications!

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent, if you haven't read much about the opioid crisis in the US. The author does get repetitive, especially about China and the chemicals/drugs that come from there.

[Collin :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did Not expect a book I was reading for my toxicology class to have me close to tears on the last page of the book. I'm gonna take this opportunity to provide a rare, slightly long review:

I'm gagged by this book. The humanization of those who are commonly dehumanized, specifically those who are addicted or formerly addicted, is exactly what a book about this subject desperately needs when confronting this issue. The tracing of such a terrible epidemic of drugs to human origins is so... fascinating.

I would give this five stars, but some of the sections were too long. The descriptions of other drugs all blended together in a way that made them dull to read and hard to absorb the importance of. The information on how China has increased this crisis, while imperative to know, was also told in an uninteresting way that made it hard to process too.

But a book with a final section like this is hard to judge too harshly. Even as I write this, there is a feeling in my heart about the last few pages that shakes me to my core. Holy shit! Also, I feel very strongly about safe-consumption sites and European models of harm reduction in a way that I never thought I'd feel.

Potentially the best book I've read for class since Slaughterhouse-5.

<3

[Siobhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very important book! If you are researching this subject I suggest you read This Is Your Mind On Plans by Michael Pollan & I think everyone should read Chasing The Scream by Johann Hari.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://www.bookwormblues.net/2020/08/...

I have a deep and abiding interest in the drug industry and how it is changing. Part of this is because, due to cancer, I cannot survive without a daily dose of artificial hormones anymore, and that means I have a very real dependence on an industry that is always changing. Part of this is also because globalization and scientific advancements have made the chemistry field a bit more accessible for individuals who enjoy playing the entrepreneur, and know how to tap into certain marketplaces that exist now in our more modern, digitized world.

The opioid problem in America is not news. It is spoken about all the time, and if you want to research opioid addiction, drug industry corruption and the like, there is likely an entire wing of your local library dedicated to the issue, and to its immediate resulting catastrophes. There is, however, precious little about Fentanyl. I mean, there is, but not a whole lot. Fentanyl is still kind of new, kind of unexplored, known, but not widely enough to have a billion books dedicated to its topic yet (though I think it’s just a matter of time). People in the know understand what a big deal it is, but with the focus on Percocet, drugs like Fentanyl get a mention, but almost never their own story.

According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 150 new illicit drugs were bought and sold between 1997 and 2010. Another 150 appeared in just the next three years, and since then, in some years as many as 100 new chemicals have appeared, with synthetic cannabinoids especially common.

Fentanyl, Inc. is a different sort of book than I was expecting. First, I thought it would be only about Fentanyl, but it’s really is about a lot more than that. Fentanyl is really the point from which the rest of the book breaks off. This is the throbbing heart around which the rest of the reporting circles.

A lot of this book is about, for lack of a better term, designer drugs. Homebrewed chemists sit in their labs and think up new ways to make better highs. It’s become nearly impossible to prosecute, and there are so many new and fancy drugs appearing on the marketplace that I’d imagine it is extremely difficult to track all of them down to the source, the chemists, the kingpins, the salesmen and women.

In addition to fentanyl, a whole new generation of chemicals is radically changing the recreational drug landscape. These are known as novel psychoactive substances (NPS), and they include replacements for known drugs like ecstasy, LSD, and marijuana, as well as heroin. These new drugs aren’t grown in a field—or grown at all. They are synthetic, made in a laboratory. There’s nothing natural about them, and they are much more potent than traditional drugs.

Fentanyl is a potent drug. It delivers more of a high than heroin, and other opioids like Oxy or Percocet. This makes it incredibly desirable for people who are looking for a high. Just pop a pill, and there you go. That being said, it’s incredibly easy to overdose. The drug overwhelms your system in miniscule amounts, which means that there’s been an absolutely surreal wave of Fentanyl-related deaths swamping the United States in recent years.

Driven by fentanyl, overdose drug deaths are, by the time of this book’s publication, for the first time killing more Americans under fifty-five than anything else—more than gun homicides and more than even AIDS during the peak years of the crisis. As of 2017, Americans were statistically more likely to die from an opioid overdose than a car accident.

However, it really goes further than that, and this is perhaps where the book interested me the most. Instead of a real in-depth discussion about Fentanyl, the author uses Fentanyl as a jumping-off point for other illicit drugs that are entering the marketplace, such as K2, Spice, an offshoot of some Ecstasy that someone in New Zealand created, and so much more. Then, Westhoff not only discusses the evolution of these drugs and how they came to be, but also shows the social impact, as well as personal ones.

Westhoff manages to get an inside view on a lot of the issues that surround this wave of NPS drugs hitting the world marketplace right now, from laboratories in the United States, to the Dark Web where a lot of this stuff is sold, and even into chemical labs in China, which are absolutely booming and are busily churning out new NPS drugs at a shockingly rapid pace. Not only have the drugs that are available changed, but the ability to prosecute them has been made far more difficult as well.

“In recent years, some of the biggest new drug kingpins can’t be successfully prosecuted. The Pablo Escobars of today are coming out of China, and they don’t have to worry about being imprisoned by their government. They can operate free and in the clear, within the boundaries of their country’s own laws. Whenever a deadly new drug is made illegal in China, manufacturers simply tweak its chemical structure and start producing a new drug that is still legal. Many fentanyl analogues and cannabinoids have been made this way.”

That’s not even touching on the issue that so many of these drugs aren’t regulated, so you have people cutting Fentanyl with heroin, or rat poison, or baking powder, or whatever else. They make pills, but you don’t know what you’re actually getting in each pill, and it’s so terribly easy to overdose. Someone’s ratio of this-and-that might change from one batch to the next. People are, very truthfully, taking their own lives in their hands, and it’s absolutely terrifying to think of just how risky and dangerous this all is. The added remove from it, via the internet and what have you, allows a lot of people to operate on a less personal level, feel less responsibility and remorse for the lives they impact so dramatically. It mixes together to create a rather toxic stew.

"That dealers would kill off their own clients may seem counterintuitive. “It brings more business,” said Detective Ricardo Franklin, of the St. Louis County Police Department’s Bureau of Drug Enforcement. “Sure, it kills more people, but from a user standpoint, they’re not thinking about the death. When they hear someone OD’d, they think it must be an amazing high."

And while this is illuminating in the extreme, Westhoff balances all of this out with very human stories. Accidental overdoses, addicts, stories from those who have directly been touched by this new wave of drugs hitting the world marketplace. The people who are trying to fight all of this, from investigators to family members and larger communities. The human element seemed to balance everything else out for me.

Westhoff went all out with his journalism and research, attempting, among other things, to infiltrate the primary Fentanyl supplier to the United States, while in China. It’s this kind of gung-ho reporting that often had me thinking, “this guy is out of his mind” mixed with “wow, the world really needs more journalists willing to go to bat for their stories like this guy.” It also made this book stand out. The author’s desire to uncover everything he’s learned, and distill it for his audience is palpable. Not only is the topic convoluted and interesting, but Westhoff’s reporting made it exciting, and he had a true knack for making difficult topics come to life in an understandable way for his readers.

This book is heavy on facts, which I tend to enjoy. Some of the chemical jargon went a bit over my head, but I’m not a chemist, so I expected that. It also didn’t take up most of the book and it was pretty easy to overlook. I did, however, find this book to be one of the more interesting ones on the changing, and globalized new drug market. The scientific information, mixed with personal and political background and heavy-hitting interest stories that pepper the narrative make Fentanyl, Inc., in my opinion, one of the best on the topic I’ve read.

Reality truly is stranger than fiction.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

TIL: Over 90% Of Illicit Fentanyl Comes From China

WOW! This is an eye-opening and emotionally charged book that exposes the grim reality of the opioid crisis. Prepare to be both angered and deeply saddened as you navigate the pages of this powerful narrative, which delves into the destructive force of illicit fentanyl that has ravaged countless lives.

Westhoff's meticulous research and investigative journalism shed light on the devastating consequences of the fentanyl epidemic. From heart-wrenching personal stories to shocking statistics, this book paints a vivid and harrowing picture of the human toll inflicted by this deadly drug.

While acknowledging the legitimate uses of fentanyl, Westhoff pulls back the curtain on the illicit production and distribution that fuels the crisis. Notably, he highlights the alarming fact that over 90% of illicit fentanyl originates from China, prompting critical reflections on drug enforcement and foreign policy.

Fentanyl, Inc. serves as a profound wake-up call, compelling readers to confront the urgent need for effective solutions and policy changes. The book's timeliness cannot be overstated, as the death toll continues to rise amidst this ongoing epidemic. Westhoff's ability to weave together personal narratives, scientific insights, and geopolitical analysis makes for a captivating and impactful read.

I wholeheartedly recommend Fentanyl, Inc. to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the opioid crisis and its far-reaching consequences. Ben Westhoff's expertise as a journalist and writer shines through in his captivating storytelling, making it nearly impossible to put this book down. Brace yourself for a rollercoaster of emotions, as you navigate the pages and gain a profound appreciation for the complexities and urgency surrounding this issue.

In conclusion, I rate Fentanyl, Inc. with a very high score, recognizing its exceptional power and the importance of its message. Prepare to be educated, moved, and motivated to take action as you immerse yourself in this gripping narrative. Let us stand together in the fight against the deadly tide of illicit fentanyl, armed with knowledge and compassion.

4.8/5

[Christina Dudley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yikes. Here's a fairly fast, informative, alarming read about the latest wave in addictive, possibly-deadly drugs. The most powerful mind-altering drugs on offer today are also the cheapest. Synthetic cannabinoids (who even knows how to spell that), synthetic opioids, fake ecstasy. Chemists around the world putting their minds to work and coming up with ways to enslave people. While the synthetics may have been originally pioneered in academic settings for the purposes of science and medicine, they've now gone rogue and fallen into the hands of industry (mostly in China, Mexico, and India) for moneymaking purposes. And, as with all addictive substances, there's plenty of money to be made.

Basically, don't put unknown substances in your mouths. Not if you're at a rave or a music festival or a high-school party. (All the new drugs are unregulated and always one step ahead of being banned, so there's no quality control and you never know what you're getting or how much.) Of course, this practical advice is impossible to follow when you're addicted and dopesick, but if it's early days and you have the choice between a beer or some powdered something-or-other, go for the beer. Trust me.

Westhoff makes a convincing argument for how safe-drug places actually help bring down crime rates and costs, but ugh. It's hard not to go all NIMBY about it, especially since they have no impact on addiction rates, so you're basically between a rock and a hard place and supporting safe drug addiction, rather then being mugged and tripping over used needles.

[Silvia Núñez Gómez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this a mind-blowing and eye-opening book regarding the most critical public health problem in the USA Today. I think that the author’s main argument is that the opioid crisis is a story of global capitalism, where new drug value chains have been established responding to different reasons: the opening and rise of China’s capitalism (with all its government policies), the chronic poverty and lack of opportunities in Mexico, and the endless US demand for drugs (coupled with unethical and massive health prescription’s).

Moreover, it is well written and meticulously documented, with an extensive worldwide investigation to understand the production, distribution, and usage of fentanyl and its analogs, and concluded with an exposition of alternative ways to approach drug usage.

The opioid crisis is a real global tragedy that has created a death toll: in the US and Canada, people are overdosing; in Mexico, people are dying by trafficking these substances, and the violence has reached unpreceded levels.

[Cynthia D]

*** I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review ***

You like drugs? Public health? Policy? Politics? Interested in the current opioid epidemic? This is a good fit to itch those likes.

I was expecting a book more focused on personal stories of drug users and fentanyl, but what I got instead was an interesting telling of the drug situation not only in the United States but around the world as well. The history around designer drugs is told in length.

The international politics, especially between the US and China, is discussed and made me think about whether there were some historical reasons around China’s current lax attitude about the drug labs.

I found this to be very educational, especially as I start taking classes on population health and societal health issues. Would recommend. It’s not a dry read like some other drug books I’ve picked up recently.

[MM Suarez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most people I didn't know a whole lot about this topic except what you hear on the news, this book provides an education on how this worldwide crisis started and how some countries appear to be more successful than the U.S. in their efforts to address the issue and save lives, albeit with controversial programs that don't seem to get off the ground in our country.

I will say that the book can get a little overwhelming sometimes when it gets into all the different chemical compounds and all the different names comprised of letters and numbers and such but overall I think it is an important book with a lot to teach.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

My copy was an ARC from ALA Annual 2019 (June, so 3 months before publication). Because of this, the book wasn't 100% finished. That being said, I thought it was an awesome book. I have read many, many others on the opioid epidemic and this is just about the only one that focuses on fentanyl and the role that other countries play. This is not a person with substance abuse disorder or their family members bio. I would recommend to everyone.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive look at the rise of fentanyl, fentanyl derivatives, and the myriad designer drugs/novel psychoactive substances that have come in their wake. This is the next step in the opioid crisis, since the street heroin addicts have turned to is often cut with varying and dangerous amounts of fentanyls, often with tragic results. Westhoff met with manufacturers in China, makers of safe-testing kits in Europe, and researched the Dark Web.

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book blew me away. It is so current with what is going on in the world. What I am seeing in the news daily about fentanyl laced cocaine overdoses, hits home with this book. Also, made me understand Trump’s trade war with China had to do with their illegal drug trade. Mind. Blown.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative. Learned a ton of things in this book.