What Does Fentanyl Taste Like?

Fentanyl is an opioid drug available by prescription and frequently used in hospital settings to help people with chronic pain, usually from cancer or other terminal conditions. However, there are other uses for Fentanyl, like post-operative pain relief. When used to treat chronic pain, it is usually prescribed as an additional medication to someone already taking opiates, like morphine, around the clock. Fentanyl is used to help deal with breakthrough pain that the other medication does not cover.

In most instances, it’s intended for people who are opioid-tolerant. It can also be used for certain surgeries and procedures as part of anesthesia as well.

Because of its potency, which is up to 100 times the strength of morphine, there are strict guidelines stating why and to whom Fentanyl can be prescribed. The strict guidelines exist because there is a significant potential for abuse and because of its potency, for overdose.

While fentanyl is approved for prescription purposes, it is often manufactured illegally and sold on the black market. Not only is fentanyl sold on its own, but it’s being mixed with other drugs like heroin and Xanax. People may not know they’re buying something cut with fentanyl and this can increase the risk of overdose and death.

Mixing Fentanyl with other drugs has contributed to the spike in the number of opiate overdose cases in recent years.

When someone is prescribed fentanyl, there are several ways the drug can be administered. One of the most common ways is the transdermal patch, which contains fentanyl in a gel. The patch goes directly on the skin and then the skin absorbs a certain amount before it’s released into the bloodstream. With the patch, the medicine is controlled in terms of how much a person gets and the effects last for several days.

The other ways fentanyl can be prescribed include a tablet that dissolves and is absorbed by the oral mucous membranes, or as a lollipop or lozenge. In a hospital setting, it can also be given intravenously.

As far as abusing fentanyl, it is taken in many of the same ways as heroin. It can be injected, snorted, smoked or the patches can even be chewed or eaten. The effects of the drug occur extremely fast because fentanyl crosses the blood-brain barrier much quicker than morphine or other opiates.

As already mentioned, many forms of illicit fentanyl don’t have a specific characteristic like color, taste or odor to help you confirm it’s the drug. In general, Fentanyl is white but when it’s illicitly sold, it may be off-white or tan. In some cases, it can also be a brown color.

It’s challenging to determine unique characteristics of fentanyl in most situations, other than by looking at its chemical makeup, which is one reason why it’s so dangerous for people when they buy heroin and other drugs laced with it. In some cases, heroin may have a more yellow tint to it on its own and it may look more white if it’s laced with fentanyl, but this may not always be a reliable distinguishing feature.