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

Synopsis

A deeply human story, Fentanyl, Inc. is the first deep-dive investigation of an 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 generation 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 ecstasy, LSD, and marijuana, as well as heroin. They are synthetic, made in a laboratory... and they are much more potent than traditional drugs"--and, tragically, all-too-often 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 one step ahead of the law, often 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 is the first journalist ever to infiltrate a Chinese fentanyl lab. Working undercover, he gains entry to a pair of synthetic drug operations from which fentanyls and other NPS emanate, providing startling and original reporting on how China's vast chemical industry operates, and how the Chinese government subsidizes it. He poignantly 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.

Copyright:

2019

Book Details

Book Quality:

Excellent

Book Size:

341 Pages

ISBN-13:

9780802127433

Publisher:

Grove/Atlantic, Incorporated

Date of Addition:

12/10/19

Copyrighted By:

Ben Westhoff

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Nonfiction, Law, Legal Issues and Ethics, Medicine, Sociology

Submitted By:

Terry Gorman

Proofread By:

Terry Gorman

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.