When Prince Rogers Nelson (better known as Prince) died suddenly on April 21 at the age of 57, his passing was met with a lot of grief, sadness, curiosity and skepticism. As was the case with musical legends Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, a drug overdose was immediately suspected. A report by the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office has put the mystery to bed – Prince died of an accidental overdose on fentanyl, a dangerously powerful opioid.
What Is Fentanyl?
Why Do Doctors Prescribe Fentanyl?
What Are the Side Effects of Fentanyl?
How Do People Abuse Fentanyl?
What Are the Symptoms of a Fentanyl Overdose?
What Is Fentanyl?
Fentanyl is a human-made opioid used to treat severe pain. It’s 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine. The drug interacts with receptors in your brain to create feelings of pain relief, relaxation, contentment, and pleasure.
While it’s safe for your doctor to give you fentanyl in a medical setting, some people abuse it, which can lead to an overdose.
Why Do Doctors Prescribe Fentanyl?
A doctor might prescribe fentanyl if you have severe pain due to cancer, nerve damage, serious injury, or major surgery.
Medical fentanyl comes in many forms, including:
Lozenges, sometimes on a stick
Skin patches
As an injection or through an IV
Before giving you fentanyl, your doctor should ensure that you’re not allergic to it or to any other narcotic pain medications. Tell your doctor if you’ve ever had:
Sleep apnea
Breathing problems
A brain tumor
A head injury
A stroke
Seizures
Liver or kidney disease
Slow heartbeats or other heart problems
Low blood pressure
Mental illness, such as depression or schizophrenia
Hallucinations
Also, tell your doctor if:
You’ve used an antidepressant called a MAO inhibitor (isocarboxazid, linezolid, methylene blue injection, phenelzine, rasagiline, selegiline, tranylcypromine) in the last 14 days
You’re pregnant, plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding
What Are the Side Effects of Fentanyl?
This drug stays in your system for 24-72 hours.
After a fentanyl treatment, you may have side effects that hinder your thinking and reactions or cause dizziness or drowsiness. Because of this, don’t drive or do activities that require you to be fully alert and awake after your treatment. Avoid drinking alcohol for several hours after you take fentanyl.
Fentanyl may cause other side effects. Let your doctor know if any of these symptoms don’t go away or become serious:
Photos Prince MJ & Whitney In Later Stage of Life 
Drowsiness
Stomach pain or heartburn
Weight loss
Trouble peeing
Vision changes
Anxiety or depression
Unusual thinking or dreams
Trouble falling or staying asleep
Dry mouth
Sudden reddening of your face, neck, or upper chest
Shaking in any part of your body
Back or chest pain
Mouth pain, sores, or irritation in the location where you were given fentanyl
Swelling in your hands, feet, arms, ankles, or lower legs
Call your doctor right away if you notice:
Changes in your heartbeat
Hallucinations, agitation, fever, sweating, confusion, shivering, muscle stiffness or twitches, loss of coordination, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea
Loss of appetite, weakness, or dizziness
Sexual or menstrual problems
Seizures
Hives or rashes
Itching
Seek emergency medical help and stop using fentanyl if you have:
Shallow, slow breathing
Trouble swallowing and breathing
Intense drowsiness
Dizziness or confusion
Fainting
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How Do People Abuse Fentanyl?
Fentanyl is very addictive. It’s one of the most common drugs involved in overdose deaths.
The Basics: Fentanyl
Fentanyl is a powerful opioid painkiller that’s stronger than morphine or heroin.
The drug can be manufactured illegally. Dealers may sell it as a standalone drug or as a counterfeit for another drug (like oxycodone). It’s also used as a low-cost additive to other drugs like heroin, methamphetamine, molly, and ecstasy.
If you unknowingly take fentanyl in another drug, you may overdose, since fentanyl is so potent.
Fentanyl can also be “diverted.” That’s when the drug is prescribed by a doctor but isn’t used as directed or is sold or given to someone else.
Some people take fentanyl illegally by separating it from skin patches and injecting it. This can be dangerous since it’s hard to judge dose size. You could inject a lot more fentanyl than you thought.
What Are the Symptoms of a Fentanyl Overdose?
Call an ambulance right away if you suspect you or someone you’re with may have taken an overdose.
Signs of an overdose can show up within seconds of taking fentanyl, They include:
Blue lips and complexion
Gurgling or slow breathing
Chest pain
Seizure or stiffening of the body
Confusion or strange behavior
Passing out
First responders will likely administer naloxone (Narcan), a medication that reverses the effects of opiates.
You don’t have to be a health care professional to give this medication. You can get it from a pharmacist without a prescription. It comes in a fast-acting nasal spray or a preloaded multiple-dose syringe. Some experts recommend having naloxone on hand whenever someone in the household is taking narcotics.
To prevent accidental fentanyl overdoses, you can use fentanyl test strips to ensure other drugs don’t contain the opioid. You can get them through some outreach programs, such as needle exchanges.
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Fentanyl Seizures and Deaths Continuing to Rise
Prince’s name and face will certainly insert fentanyl in the public’s collective conscious, but this is a drug that has been wreaking havoc long before it took Prince’s life. The synthetic opioid was created in the 1950s as a safer and more effective pain treatment alternative to morphine and meperidine. Well, it definitely isn’t safer, but it is certainly far more effective.
Fentanyl is the strongest approved opioid for medical use in the nation. The drug is said to be as much as 50-100 times stronger than morphine and 30-50 times more potent than heroin. The drug is most commonly prescribed for intense pain following surgery or the unimaginable pain experienced by patients with advanced cancer.
As little as a quarter of a milligram of fentanyl is enough to be fatal. To put that into context, a standard aspirin tablet is 325 milligrams. This means just a fractional dose can be deadly – something that law enforcement officials throughout North America have been learning the hard way. [3]
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), from 2013 – 2015, there were more than 700 Americans killed from fentanyl-related overdoses.[4] From 2005 – 2007, the DEA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 1,103 fentanyl-related deaths from nonmedical usage. [5] In 2012, there were 618 reported seizures of fentanyl in forensic laboratories. By 2014, that number had jumped to 4,585. More than 80 percent of the seizures were concentrated in Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Kentucky, Virginia, Florida, New Hampshire and Indiana. [6] From 2009 – 2014 in Canada, there were at least 655 deaths where fentanyl was determined to be a cause or contributing cause. Also during this time, there were at least 1,019 drug poisoning deaths where fentanyl was present. [7] The DEA issued a nationwide warning about fentanyl in March of 2015, calling it a significant threat to public health and safety. The warning indicated that fentanyl was not only potentially fatal when ingested, but it can also be deadly with accidental skin contact.
Fentanyl Contaminating Street Drugs and Prescription Pills
The problem would be bad enough if people were knowingly taking fentanyl nonmedically, but it has become exacerbated by the fact that fentanyl is now being laced into heroin and prescription drugs. There is also a new wave of illegally made fentanyl analogs, designed to mimic the effects of the drug while circumventing national laws.
Several communities and officials across the nation have issued warnings of a new drug trend, where counterfeit pain and anxiety medications actually contain fentanyl. These pills were disguised as Percocet, Xanax and hydrocodone and have been related to several overdose deaths. These fake pills are cheaper than the real ones, and although they look identical, the unknown quantities of fentanyl and other drugs make them extremely dangerous.
The same can be said about fentanyl-laced heroin. All by itself, heroin is a highly dangerous and potentially fatal drug. When mixed with an unknown dosage of a drug that is far more powerful, the results can be horrifying. Drug users taking a “normal” dose of heroin would be in for something much more powerful, possibly leading to an overdose.
What makes it worse is that high amounts of naloxone (the opioid overdose reversal drug) are necessary to combat a fentanyl overdose. But physicians and emergency room staff who have no idea that the person has taken fentanyl will not be able to treat them effectively. Being that many heroin users are unaware of whether their drugs are laced or not, it would be nearly impossible for them to know if they had taken fentanyl.
Get Help for Opioid Addiction Before it’s Too Late
An overdose can happen anytime a person abuses heroin, fentanyl, Percocet or any other opioid. Unfortunately in Prince’s case, those closest to him were not able to get him the help he needed in time. An overdose can happen anytime a person abuses heroin, fentanyl, Percocet or any other opioid. Had his friends, family members and associates noticed the problem earlier, they could’ve acted sooner and gotten Prince the potentially life-saving treatment he needed.
As we’ve learned from this tragic case, you may not get a second chance to save your addicted loved one’s life. If you or someone you care for is struggling with an opioid addiction of any kind, whether illicit or prescription, there’s no time to wait to take action. Contact our professionals today at 888-432-2467 to learn more about our addiction recovery treatment options and how we can potentially save your life or the life of someone you love.