Fentanyl No. 1 cause of overdose deaths in US
Fentanyl and its variants have contributed significantly to the opioid crises in the US and UK.
Created in 1959, fentanyl was meant to be used as a surgical painkiller but has been increasingly abused over the years.
Today, it claims hundreds of lives every week. It killed more than 20,000 people in the US in 2016 alone.
An overdose from the drug has an instant effect, stopping a user's breathing within minutes. The user's heart may also stop completely, turning the skin pale and the lips and fingers blue.
Fentanyl usually comes in tablets or patches for medical use, but is also produced as a powder used by abusers.
The powder can be smoked, snorted, injected or eaten, but is often used with other drugs.
A Rolling Stone magazine report in June described how the music industry is facing a crisis from the drug, with musicians using opioids to cope with life on the road.
Music icon Prince and rocker Tom Petty died from overdosing on fentanyl in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
Fentanyl is now the number one cause of overdose deaths in the US, overtaking heroin in 2016. The number of deaths in the US caused by the drug also increased by 30 per cent between July 2016 and September last year.
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