Title: Fentanyl, Inc. Pdf How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic
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.
Interesting, but some problems I was both underwhelmed and annoyed by this book. I admire and respect investigative journalism. But I also think that not really having the intellectual, conceptual, and specialist’s historical perspective can seriously undercut the value and validity of the undertaking. You need more background and understanding than a (non-scientist, non-medical, non-historian) journalist is likely to be able to bring to the table.I was annoyed by what I view as an imprecise and inaccurate categorization of the drugs that are being discussed. The NPS (novel psychoactive substance) category should not include Fentanyl, which has been an established pain-relief medication in hospitals and hospices for a long time. The author’s understanding of what constituted a synthetic opioid is also one that needs more careful analysis (and defense). Cross-cutting the question of a drug’s origin (natural, or lab-created) is the question of what has and has not been something that is available by prescription.So...I wanted more expertise and more careful analysis than Westhoff provides. I also found the exposition to be disjoint, and compromised by the inclusion of details that were unnecessary, and a distraction.Some readers will clearly be less annoyed by these things than I was.Great read This is the book to understand the Fentanyl epidemic. Clearly written, it's an engaging read. Highly recommend.Fascinating! I thought this might be a dry narrative, but it turned to be a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the world of NPS (New Psychoactive Substances, often called "designer drugs"), along with their precursors (the chemicals needed to make them). It turns out that these are now largely the product of semi-legal factories in China. The author has done personal research, posing as a customer, not only on the Dark Web but actually going to China and visiting these factories! At times the book approaches being a thriller, since he was obviously at personal risk there.The way the game works is that western countries outlaw various drugs and precursors, but China lags behind. So there's a window of opportunity before China catches up and outlaws these. And then the game of Whack-A-Mole continues as chemists come up with new things that get around the new laws. It's tempting to think that this is a deliberate plan to corrupt and weaken the West, but the author feels that it's mostly a matter of money. The Chinese government actually provides subsidies and tax incentives for making many of these dubious items.The book describes a number of well-meaning strategies which turned out to make things worse. Typically a relatively benign drug is outlawed and chemists come up with analog drugs which are temporarily legal but harmful or sometimes fatal. The "bath salts" fad is a good example. Then these are outlawed in turn. Whack-A-Mole! The RAVE Act of 2003 ("Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act") had a number of unintended consequences, which the book describes in detail.A book that deserves to be widely read, about a subject that most people know little or nothing about. I learned a lot.
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