Tam linked to this thread, regarding narcotics overdoses & deaths therefrom.
Tl;dr: a great many overdoses the past few years. Quality control of street drugs is appalling, and a dose of "heroin" may be heroin plus filler, or just filler, or pure heroin, or heroin plus fentanyl, maybe diluted with filler or maybe not... so an addict (or an occasional user, for that matter) may take what appears to be his accustomed dose, and get something over an order of magnitude stronger than what he expected.
YIPE! #1: That quality-control thing. Seems to be way worse than last time I was paying attention to such things.
YIPE! #2: The numbers! How many people are messing around with opioids?
YIPE! #3: The accidental ODs of bystanders, or of cops who touch evidence. Sounds like some of these newfangled opioids would make fine chemical-warfare agents: absurdly low lethal dose; easily absorbed by inhalation or through the skin; quickly incapacitating.
And now I'm pondering potential offensive uses of these things, and getting really worried. As, it seems, are some of the Authorities, though it's not clear what can be done about the problem.
No point quarantining Trenco; we've got synthetic thionite now.
Update: Much more, and in some considerable depth, from Bayou Renaissance Man and Borepatch. BRM is getting the comments (from sundry perspectives) that Tam would have gotten if she still allowed comments. Sounds like it's a big problem, rapidly worsening, probably with multiple causes (possibly including enemy action), and the likelihood of solving the problem is basically zilch, or even negative (i.e., we'll get dramatic action that makes it worse).
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