What Kind of Drug Is It?

Fentanyl, when used legally by doctors and ANESTHESIOLOGISTS, is a powerful, quick-acting painkiller. Its effects begin more quickly than injected drugs, such as heroin or morphine, but the effects do not last as long as either drug. (Entries for heroin and morphine are available in this encyclopedia.) Fentanyl is also the active ingredient in some transdermal patches. Such patches, available by prescription, attach to the skin and transmit the painkiller slowly over a period of hours through the skin cells. Since the mid-1990s the drug has also been available in an oral lozenge, or lollipop, to ease the most extreme forms of cancer pain.

Fentanyl is a synthetic drug, meaning that it is created in the laboratory from chemicals. It is not taken from a plant or an animal. It was created to mimic the effects of organic substances like heroin...