Recently, opioid drugs have filled news headlines. The astounding aspect is that there are so many of them available now and there seems to be more each day. The unfortunate reality of these drugs is that modern science continues to make them stronger and stronger. From morphine to fentanyl and now carfentanil, it can be hard to keep track. Therefore, you may wonder, what is carfentanil? This potent and deadly opioid strikes fear in many people, while others seek to abuse it. Read on to learn more about how this drug affects the body.
Exactly What is Carfentanil?
Carfentanil comes from fentanyl, a morphine-based opioid. In fact, fentanyl relieves pain 100 times better than morphine. However, carfentanil relieves pain and causes other effects with 10,000 times the power of morphine. Knowing fentanyl causes death for many humans, you can imagine the dangers of carfentanil.
If you wonder what is carfentanil, you likely don’t know that it’s a veterinary drug. It sedates large animals, like elephants, for veterinary procedures. Moreover, when using it for animal care, veterinarians must wear protective gear or risk its deadly effects.
What Carfentanil Means for the Opioid Epidemic
Most opioid drugs, like heroin and prescription painkillers, prove addictive if you abuse them for a period of time. Specifically, your body first becomes tolerant to the drug’s effects. Therefore, you use more with each dose. Then physical dependence and addiction follow.
However, carfentanil does not cause addiction. Humans rarely can take this drug without overdosing, unless they engage in long-term heroin or fentanyl abuse. Still, someone with fentanyl addiction overdoses if they use a dose greater than the size of a few grains of salt.
Despite this extreme potency, drug makers and traffickers cut heroin and fentanyl with carfentanil. In fact, they do this to make their drugs more potent. With greater potency, people buy more and more of the drug for its high. However, many unsuspecting opioid users have no idea about carfentanil dangers.
Effects of Carfentanil on the Human Body
Carfentanil presents too much risk for humans to abuse it. Death comes quickly from an overdose on this drug, too quickly to gain life saving help. Even in elephants, the opioid sometimes causes pulmonary edema and capillary bleeding. Veterinarians must use great care when handling and using the sedative.
For example, symptoms of carfentanil overdose in humans include:
- Sudden drowsiness
- Slowed or stopped breathing
- Disorientation
- Clammy skin
- Sedation
- Pinpoint pupils
Programs to Stop Your Daily Gamble with Drug Use
If you abuse opioids or other drugs, you need the help of a licensed and accredited rehab program. This program must include:
- Rehab treatment
- Individual counseling, group therapy and family therapy addiction recovery program
- Programs for overall health and wellness
- On-site psychotherapist
- Trauma treatment program
- Dual diagnosis treatment
In Asheville, North Carolina, Crest View Recovery Center provides the opioid addiction treatment you deserve. Contact Crest View Recovery Center now at 866.327.2505. Make this call to regain control of your life and end your suffering in the cycle of addiction.