Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 100 times more powerful than morphine. It leads to more overdoses than even heroin, in part because fentanyl is sometimes mixed with other drugs, causing users to take it unknowingly.
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Fentanyl Term Timeline in Dopesick
The timeline below shows where the term Fentanyl appears in Dopesick. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Prologue
...it kills 26 people in a single day. A new synthetic opioid from China called fentanyl has proven to be particularly deadly. And the issue isn’t limited to Virginia or West...
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Chapter 9
Six weeks later, there is a spike in opioid overdoses, due to the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is 25 to 50 times more potent than heroin. Despite the deaths, many users...
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In 2015, Chris Perkins, the 46-year-old police chief, knows that fentanyl is going to change the whole opioid epidemic, for the worse. Catching user-dealers becomes harder...
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...one in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Janine Underwood is the executive director. Janine’s son, Bobby, died of fentanyl in June of 2015, after several years of going in and out of treatment and...
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Chapter 11
...create a five-page spreadsheet that they hope will guide her recovery. It’s early 2017 and fentanyl continues to lead to significantly more overdoses than usual.
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Janine Underwood is still grieving the death of her son, Bobby, to fentanyl, but she puts a lot of energy into the Hope Initiative. She remains skeptical of...
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Chapter 12
Overdoses begin to spike as fentanyl becomes more prevalent. One week in October 2016 sees 19 overdoses in the Shenandoah Valley...
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