China banned fentanyl last year, but an NPR investigation reveals how Chinese vendors continue to market the chemicals used to make the drug on e-commerce and social media sites.
New research shows the use of the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl spreading fast in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Seattle. Chinese companies are routing the street drug through cartels in Mexico.
The Drug Enforcement Agency relies on hospitals to identify nurses and doctors who misuse drugs such as morphine and fentanyl. But "only a fraction of those who are diverting drugs are ever caught."
"During the pandemic, basically everything is pointed in the wrong direction," says one federal health official, who calls the convergence of COVID-19 and America's addiction crisis "a nightmare."
