While everyone was focused on Covid over the past few years, America’s decades-old opioid crisis entered a new deadly phase – largely because of one drug in particular: fentanyl. Potent, cheap and ubiquitous, it’s sometimes mixed by street dealers with other drugs including marijuana, cocaine and even adderall, creating a ‘cocktail’ that kills people who unwittingly buy it.
Bloomberg reporters Emma Court, Linly Lin and Leonardo Nicoletti join this episode to talk about the consequences of fentanyl’s rise in cities around the country. And Helena Girouard, a health official in hard-hit Volusia County, Florida, gives an up-close look at the crisis there and how the local government is trying to bring it under control.
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