New Fentanyl Cocktail Continues Trend of Harder Enforcement Creating Harder Drugs: Health Policy Analyst

Public health authorities are warning of a new fentanyl drug concoction laced with a veterinary sedative more potent than previous cocktails. According to a libertarian drug policy analyst, the emergence of this new drug continues an acrimonious relationship between illicit substances and law enforcement’s attempt to control them that began in the first chapter of the War on Drugs: Prohibition. Both cities of Chicago and Philadelphia have issued health alerts warning of the drug medetomidine being mixed with fentanyl after an increase in overdoses. According to the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), medetomidine is more potent than xylazine, also a veterinary sedative that has made it into street narcotics labeled the “zombie drug.”...