Compared to monkeys, humans are somewhat more sensitive to opioids (the monkey OIRD ED50 of ~0.02 mg/kg fentanyl is similar to the fentanyl LD50 in humans)35,47,48
Average weight of a man in the US is 200 lbs, so 91kg.
So that has an LD50 for an average man in the US of 1.82mg. If anything, the “potentially fatal” level is pretty generous; I’d expect that to be rather below the LD50.
And it’s presumably lower for women and children.
And I’m just using the monkey LD50, which according to the above Nature article should be higher than that of a human, if anything.
looks puzzled
I don’t understand the math here. LD50 of 1.82mg, using optimistic numbers; if anything, probably lower. And 109mg fentanyl/pill. I mean, unless you’re going to kill your customers on their first pill, something seems wrong.
I can readily believe that drug distribution networks are pushing stuff that’s jammed up into the quite-dangerous zone, but this seems like it’d be in “certain death” territory. Like, a suicide pill.
50-100 times the potential lethal dose seems pretty high even for a chronic addict.
I think either there’s a mix up with the reported numbers here, or they’re reporting the weight of the whole pill, not the fentanyl in the pill.
A fentanyl pill will be mostly filler material with a little drug sprinkled in, actually that’s most pills in general. A Tylenol pill isn’t 100% Acetaminophen, it’s mostly just filler material.
So I’m willing to bet the pills way 109 milligrams each, and they’re just little tabs with like 1-10% fentanyl content.
Yeah, wait a minute.
So…what, does each pill have like 50 times the potentially-fatal level? That’d have to be 109mg/pill.
“potentially fatal” is vague. What’s the LD50, the dosage that’s lethal to 50% of dosed individuals?
kagis
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-43126-0
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/body-measurements.htm
Average weight of a man in the US is 200 lbs, so 91kg.
So that has an LD50 for an average man in the US of 1.82mg. If anything, the “potentially fatal” level is pretty generous; I’d expect that to be rather below the LD50.
And it’s presumably lower for women and children.
And I’m just using the monkey LD50, which according to the above Nature article should be higher than that of a human, if anything.
looks puzzled
I don’t understand the math here. LD50 of 1.82mg, using optimistic numbers; if anything, probably lower. And 109mg fentanyl/pill. I mean, unless you’re going to kill your customers on their first pill, something seems wrong.
I can readily believe that drug distribution networks are pushing stuff that’s jammed up into the quite-dangerous zone, but this seems like it’d be in “certain death” territory. Like, a suicide pill.
Ok I re read the article and I think the misleading part is this:
The total weight of the pills was ~153 kg, but that’s not all Fentanyl. The pills CONTAINED it but this doesn’t tell us the amount per pill.
Furthermore it looks like they were stamped as Oxycodone so yeah they were to be sold to current opiate users I wager
Thanks for doing the math!
Better than doing the meth!
I think addicts use higher doses since they are used to it.
50-100 times the potential lethal dose seems pretty high even for a chronic addict.
I think either there’s a mix up with the reported numbers here, or they’re reporting the weight of the whole pill, not the fentanyl in the pill.
A fentanyl pill will be mostly filler material with a little drug sprinkled in, actually that’s most pills in general. A Tylenol pill isn’t 100% Acetaminophen, it’s mostly just filler material.
So I’m willing to bet the pills way 109 milligrams each, and they’re just little tabs with like 1-10% fentanyl content.
Idk. I remember hearing that Rush Limbaugh took 100s of oxycontin per day. Tolerance builds.