The pipeline of deadly fentanyl to the US may be drying up, experts say

When street fentanyl began to proliferate in America’s street drug supply starting in 2012, most experts believed the deadly synthetic opioid was unstoppable. Fentanyl is cheap, easy to make and hugely profitable. The black market supply chain that fuels America’s demand for the drug is controlled by some of the most sophisticated and ruthless criminal gangs in the world.

But Dan Ciccarone, a physician and street drug researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, said he’s heard from street drug experts in the U.S. over the past six months who also saw significantly less fentanyl and fewer overdoses .

Researchers generally agree that there has been an “unprecedented” decline in fentanyl purity in some parts of the United States. Labs that test street fentanyl find that it is cut or diluted much more aggressively, often with an industrial chemical known as BTMPS.

Some drug policy experts believe these shifts in fentanyl supply are factors in the sudden national decline in fentanyl-related deaths, which fell by about 20% last year, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Some analysts believe international pressure on Chinese companies making fentanyl precursor chemicals could be a factor. Others think a global crackdown on Mexican drug cartels smuggling fentanyl into the U.S. will finally impact the black market supply chain.

Last year, the cartels seemed to recognize the pressure. They have made public promises to curb fentanyl production and smuggling into the United States. The US Drug Enforcement Administration was skeptical of the gesture, calling it “a public relations stunt.”