I don't know. It is my understanding that with opiates you build up resistance to a point where eventually you just need something of fentanyl strength - and in that case surely it doesn't matter whether it's actually fentanyl or something else, any opiate of this strength is too dangerous to be out there, no?

> in that case surely it doesn't matter whether it's actually fentanyl or something else, any opiate of this strength is too dangerous to be out there, no?

I don't see why.

The primary issue with fentanyl today is not that the people who need/want it are taking it, it's that it's being used to adulterate other drugs. Many people die from fentanyl having no desire to take it, nor any knowledge they are taking it. Others die because of incorrect labelling or unexpected purity. Regulate the market as we regulate other markets, and these problems go away.

My local supermarket sells a lot of things which would kill me if swallowed in relatively small amounts (acetaminophen and caffeine tablets, for example), but there's no crisis of people dying from taking a box of No-Doz because, well, why would you want to? Fentanyl overdose is a pretty baroque method of suicide in a hypothetical world where all drugs are legal and safe.

(I'm not especially against the idea that, even if heroine is legal, fentanyl should still be prescription only or whatever for some reason! I just don't see any obvious reasons why it would be uniquely dangerous. Most things will kill you at a sufficient dose; they're problematic only if you're at risk of accidentally taking that dose. And the obvious problems with fentanyl today would not apply so...)

Or even stop regulating the drugs that are currently illegal entirely, and let market mechanisms work! Drugs are in this middle ground that's both not policed by the government AND can't use standard market signalling methods.

Arguably the fact that you can get good, high quality drugs reliably from darknet markets is the "stop regulating the drugs entirely" mechanism at work, only by making enforcement impossible.

It is not possible to have a tolerance that high. Fentanyl is 100x the strength of morphine. Morphine alone is enough to kill you, so it is not possible to need something more than morphine unless you're immortal. Drug traffickers sell fake heroin that's actually fentanyl + 99% baby powder or whatever. When they mismeasure the fentanyl dose, people die. There is no way someone would choose this in a free market where real heroin were available. Fentanyl is 100% the government's fault.

Fentanyl is typically used as a cutting agent. Heroin, xanax, etc are all fairly expensive so if you can cut these drugs with fentanyl to provide a similar experience, then it may be in the dealer's financial interest to do so. From what I've read online, not a lot of users chase fentanyl itself unless it is the only opiate available to them.

then tough. If someone is to the stage where however much pure heroin they inject is not enough, then the the medical care on offer at such places is put into place way before this becomes a problem.

As a recreational drug, heroin is much more desirable than fentanyl. The problem with street heroin it is cut to nothing and expensive (relative). Fentaynl is pure strength, shorter lasting and less enjoyable.