Posted by benzapp on November 25, 2001, at 19:48:44
In reply to fentanyl stuff, posted by Elizabeth on November 23, 2001, at 20:22:29
Some corrections. China White is a slang term, and doesn't apply to anything other than a pure white narcotic. Pure heroin is white, contrary to popular belief. The drug you are referring to is 4-methyl fentanyl I believe. To my knowledge it has never been found to be prevalent on the street as it needs to be manufactured from fentanyl. This process was only recently discovered, about 1.5 years ago and is not easy. Black market drug dealers would have to be pretty familiar with cutting edge medical journals to know anything about it, let alone how to make it. Adding a meth group to any drug makes it pass the blood brain barrier more easily. To read the article from some involved in researching fentanyl analogs and their published work on 4-methyl fentanyl and its manufacturing process see:
Bioorganic Medical Chemistry Letter, 2000 Sep 4;
10(17):2011-44-methyl fentanyl is a potent drug however. This same article's preliminary study indicates its about four times as power as fentanyl per identical metric weight. For the previous poster, strength was not subjective, he was referring to potency per metric weight. To provide equivalent analgesic effect one would use 10mg of morphine, 5mg of diacetylmorphine (heroin), or .0025 to .001 milligrams of Fentanyl. A wide variety of opiates are found on the street, and fentanyl is definitely not unknown. Its potency makes it ideal for the black market, a single gram of fentanyl will provide 20,000 doses to satisfy ones addiction, where a single gram of heroin will provide only 200. Morphine and derivatives will always be popular for the reasons you state, but if the drug interdiction efforts become more effective and heroin imports decline, it will be far easier to smuggle fentanyl than heroin. While it may not be as much fun or last as long, it will relieve withdrawl symptoms. As any addict will tell you, some days you get good smack and some days you get bad smack. Fentanyl would fall into the "bad" category. Its not great, but its better than nothing. In general, black market drugs focus on the most pure form, as it is easier to smuggle. Heroin became popular for this same reason.
> > And get you facts straight, in order of strength it's morphine, Heroin, and Fentanyl.
>
> "Strength" is pretty subjective -- it depends on what effect you're shooting for (pun intended - sorry, I couldn't resist), among other things.
>
> > On the street Fentanyl is called China White, so strong that just a little too much and you OB and die.
>
> "China White" is actually alpha-methylfentanyl or another derivative. It'd be pretty difficult to market fentanyl as heroin, since fentanyl lasts only about 30-45 minutes.
>
> -e
poster:benzapp
thread:84586
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011123/msgs/85140.html