If you google this question, “where does fentanyl come from?” You get a results page filled with “China” and “Mexico”. I have a suspicion that the fentanyl “pouring over our southern border” narrative is mostly BS and that it’s coming from inside the house, but can anybody point me towards the facts? Thank you

  • Des [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    there are labs in mexico that basically replaced the facilities that used to refine locally grown opium into black tar. fentanyl precursors are extremely easy to acquire by an organization. they were originally coming from gray market chinese labs (the CPC cracked down hard) now likely from india which has a well developed pharm chemical industry

    i wouldn’t be suprised if some synthesis was happening in the U.S. also there was a period where tons of analogs were being manufactured and sold on the darkweb mostly to research chemical enthusiasts. so there could still be stockpiles of these analogs being fed into the “heroin” supply. i have no doubt these original RCs were being added to low quality heroin which basically started this whole nightmare.

    so in a sense it did originally come from inside the house. then capitalism came and did it’s thing

    • RyanGosling [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      9 days ago

      China still makes most of the RCs. I have no idea what these firms look like over in China, but I don’t think they’re like the manufacturers in Latin America hiding in jungled and churning retail barrels. If these factories are big enough to be producing and selling large quantities on the dark web (and clear web! You can find several stores openly selling them on google lol), then there’s major capital behind the operations somewhere. Either that, or someone on the assembly line has very nimble fingers.

      • Des [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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        7 days ago

        oh yeah i know they do some still. i’ve seen some novel stimulants. but pretty sure they have stopped with the fentalaogs though but i could be mistaken. it’s just outside my investigative research on the open wholesale markets. (also fuck RC opioids would never touch them with a 1 billion mile pole)

        other opioids though. like the Phenylpiperidines i think they are still cranking out. i just don’t see those getting mainstream since they aren’t water soluable

  • dead [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    Some drugs actually do come from China and Mexico.

    However, you shouldn’t accept the reactionary framing of the drug narrative. Availability of drugs is not what makes people do drugs. Americans are doing drugs because the quality of life in America is hellish. People are doing drugs as a form of escapism from the shitty existence of American life.

    Reject the premise that stopping the flow of drugs will make less people do drugs. Less people will do drugs when they have a better life, access to healthcare, higher wages, safer workplace, solidarity with other workers, etc.

    • RedDawn [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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      9 days ago

      Excellent points, and definitely aligns with my own thoughts, I just figured with how much the media hounds on this being a border issue that they’re probably also lying about it in the first place / the stuff is being manufactured here to begin with.

  • Skeleton_Erisma [they/them, any]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    Sackler Family/Purdue pharmaceuticals corporation.

    Literally ruling class ghouls in the healthcare industry caused this. But that doesn’t stop reactionaries from blaming “woke” or whatever the 10’o clock news spoon feeds them.

  • Justice@lemmygrad.ml
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    9 days ago

    I haven’t looked into this yet, but I can almost guarantee there is a purposeful blending or blurring of the numbers or lines around legal, legitimate-use medical grade fentanyl that hospitals use for all kinds of shit and the illegal, questionable quality, dubious source stuff. There’s also going to be a lot of fear mongering around precursors for the drugs. Say it takes 1g of chemical A in the production of 1kg of good quality fentanyl in a good lab. The DEA or other motivated agencies will absolutely just say every bit of chemical A that enters the country could be used in fentanyl production.

    But again, this is all speculation, I haven’t looked into it yet, I just know how cop-brains operate

  • un_mask_me [any]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    We make the legal versions here and also source it and ingredients from places like China and others. Here it’s prescribed by doctors for pain. The political stuff mostly concerns illegal versions and the horrific addiction qualities of the drug. You can look at Actiq, Duragesic, and Sublimaze for the legal versions. Also cops. And some of the drug companies have been accused of selling ingredients illegally. It’s pretty fucked all the way around.

  • Wertheimer [any]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    Janssen Pharmaceutica, a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Beerse, Belgium, and wholly-owned by Johnson & Johnson.

  • Tunnelvision [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    It absolutely comes from Mexico and the precursors do come from China/ maybe India, but it’s hard to think Mexico or China are doing it to harm the United States and not the United States using it as a reason to continue the militarization of the police force, which leaves only one conclusion. America is the one either producing or overseeing the production of fentanyl. Considering the connection between American law enforcement and cartels is pretty open it’s hard to dispute.

  • RyanGosling [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    9 days ago

    China makes most of the fentanyl and/or precursors. I read somewhere that Germany also produces a ton.

    Basically, fentanyl is an actual drug used in healthcare, and its precursors are used in other applications as well. Some companies work directly with cartels and others have inside men. But other companies refuse to do so because it attracts too many eyes. But that doesn’t stop the flow. Criminal syndicates also have corporate front entities that pose as legitimate pharmaceutical firms. They’ll put in orders, and some companies/customs/regulators may either turn a blind eye to the end user, others completely ignorant of the end user because the criminals are good at hiding.

    Now, even if the entire supply chain is legitimate, there’s still the fact that drug cartels have guys with machine guns. If they can’t do the corporate route, they’ll just rob the shipment.