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The Rural Blog: Heroin Overdoses Raise Concern Drugs Came From Same Batch

A rash of heroin overdoses reported in the last two weeks in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia, has officials concerned the drugs came from the same batch, β€œlikely mixed with either fentanyl or carfentanil,” Harrison Jacobs reports for Business Insider.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, β€œis 80 to 100 times as powerful as morphine and about 40 to 50 times as potent as pure heroin.”

Carfentanil, frequently used as an elephant tranquilizer, β€œis 100 times as potent as fentanyl, which makes it roughly 10,000 times as strong as morphine.”