All language subtitles for Beyond.Fentanyl.2023.1080p.WEB.h264-BAE

♪♪

-Fentanyl is safe, in my eyes,
compared to benzos and fent.

♪♪

People are dying without even
having tinfoil down, you know?

They're taking a hoot
and they're just dead.

♪♪

-We've started to see tranq
come into the dope.

People are getting
string injuries and wounds.

You can see down to the muscle
tissue and the bone.

Large abscesses and, like,
infections

where they're injecting.

-This tranq is intense.

Like, you feel like
you're literally gonna die.

-Do you feel any sense of
responsibility

for some of these new chemicals

that are kind of
replacing fentanyl?

-No, no.

We knew the traffickers
would continue to try.

We want to absolutely prohibit

all of these synthetics
from coming in.

♪♪

-The benzos are going to kill
a lot of people,

and it already has.

It's already started.

-Why is this being
cut into everything?

-Because it's so addicting.

That's what everybody wants --

that ultimate high.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Human error that we make
costs lives.

You can put one batch out and it
might kill a lot of people.

♪♪

[ Honks horn ]

Back seat.

My mom did the same trade
for many, many years.

I was introduced to it
at a young age,

and I just sort of
followed in her footsteps.

And here I am.

Everything changed when fentanyl
became the market.

♪♪

-Keisha's a drug dealer
who asked us to

only use her first name.

Over the 20 years
she's been selling,

she's seen the supply
change dramatically.

♪♪

For the last decade,
both Canada and the U.S.

have been ravaged by
an overdose crisis,

largely fueled by
the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

The pandemic made it worse
by disrupting the drug supply

and cutting people off
from harm-reduction services.

But the crisis is now reaching
another turning point.

Chemicals made in labs
are infiltrating the drug supply

and being combined with fentanyl

to make something
more dangerous.

And nowhere is this more evident
than in British Columbia.

♪♪

[ Blender whirring ]

♪♪

-You went from seeing
brown substance,

which is heroin,
and then you're like,

"Okay, what the...is this?"

'Cause it's purple and blue
and pink

and all these weird colors.

Okay, so I just have to
wait until it settles.

-Despite the shifting supply,
Keisha still sells fentanyl.

She mixes it with
purple food coloring

to differentiate it
from cocaine,

and she cuts it with monk fruit,
an organic sweetener

she says is safer than
other cutting agents.

Still, it's not safe.

Fentanyl is up to 50 times
more potent than heroin.

It's been linked to at least
250,000 deaths

in the U.S. and Canada.

-The risk is extremely dangerous
every day.

You know, anything can happen.

See how there's, like,
smoke coming out?

-Yeah.
-That's the dangerous

part of it.
-Just because it's so potent?

-Yeah, yeah.

-When you think about fentanyl,
it's always in the abstract,

and she's using, like,
just these normal kitchen tools

and food coloring.
It's very, like, basic.

♪♪

Keisha cooks her fentanyl
every few days

in a process that takes hours.

-Yes.

-She charges $10 a bag

and can sell up to
five ounces in a day

for as much as $15,000.

-What I see is that people
need fentanyl more than heroin.

Like, more frequently.
Like, heroin,

you used to be able to
do a smash or, you know,

do a couple points
and you'd be good all day

and all night.
Well, people who use fent,

they need it every, like,
three hours.

-So it just doesn't last
as long?

-Doesn't last as long.
Doesn't have legs.

-To make the fentanyl's effects
last longer,

other suppliers have been
cutting it

with ultra-potent chemicals.

One called etizolam is from
a family of sedatives

called benzodiazepines.

This cocktail is being sold as
benzo dope,

a drug that's deadlier
and more addictive

than the sum of its parts.

In January, benzos were detected

in more than half of
fatal overdoses.

So, fentanyl hits the market,

it's like the worst
overdose crisis

we've ever seen, and now there's
benzos in the fentanyl.

How has it changed things?

-I've never seen
anything like it.

I've seen people do hoots
and they're, like,

literally, folded in half
on the ground for hours.

They're gone for.

The benzos are going to kill
a lot of people.

And it already has.
It's already started.

And everything is cut with it.

Everything.

It's very hard to find somebody
who you can trust

to get just raw fent
and not cut with any benzos.

Fentanyl is safe, in my eyes,
compared to benzos and fent.

-That's a shocking statement,
though.

For you to say that fentanyl,
which has killed thousands --

hundreds of thousands
at this point --

of people, and you're saying
that it's safe

compared to this new dope
that you're seeing.

-Yeah.

Way, way, more safer.

-Keisha considers herself
an ethical dealer

because she doesn't cut benzos
into her fentanyl.

Addiction specialists
have been advocating

for keeping the drug supply safe
for years.

They point to countries
like Switzerland,

which created a prescription
heroin program

to help curb overdose deaths,
and in the last few years,

a handful of clinics
in British Columbia

have taken safe supply
a step further,

prescribing
medical-grade fentanyl

for people severely addicted to
opioids.

But these programs
can be hard to access.

So Keisha says her customers
and friends rely on her

for benzo-free fentanyl.

-So, those are all marked,
and then what are these,

half grams?
-Yep.

-Okay.

Well, tell them to...off.

-Okay, what I'm looking at,
you wouldn't be able to know

that there was benzos
in here or not.

They've put in different colors,
but there's no way

that you could tell that
you have benzos in it unless,

you know, someone told you.

People would mark their drugs
with different colors,

so, you know,
all the purple stuff is good

or the, you know,
green stuff is good.

Problem with that is
other people would hear

what's good on the street
and then they would --

-They would mark it.
Somebody overdosed on it,

they want it.
-They want it.

And, you know --
-It just keeps getting stronger

and stronger because of
the benzos in it.

Now guys, if you give them dope
without benzos in it,

they don't even get unsick.
-Oh, yeah.

-So it's no good.
They could smoke that shit

all day, but once you get
the benzos in it,

they love it.

But it makes them
forget everything.

-Yeah.
-Just gives them, like, amnesia.

Nobody remembers
where they put their dope.

Everybody loses everything.
Everybody gets robbed.

Good for people that sell dope,
though,

because they always got to
come back.

-Okay,
and then these are halves.

-Okay.

-Keisha's house is a place for
her customers to come and go,

using her drugs there.

She has naloxone on hand
and says she's used it

to reverse
hundreds of overdoses.

She lets people stay there.

Some of them are trying to
wean off benzo dope,

and she's picked people up
off the street

who look like they need help.

They just found this young girl
and she's, like, 19.

She was outside of a hotel
at night, freezing cold.

They brought her in,
and she's hooked on benzo dope,

so they're trying to give her

some of Keisha's fentanyl
instead.

She seems really freaked out.

She just keeps shaking,
and she's just really jumpy.

She's talking to herself a lot.

She just seems very scared.

Not everyone Keisha offers to
help gets off benzo dope.

♪♪

-Do you have any of
the gray stuff on you?

-Pink stuff is what I was
more shooting at.

That pink shit rocks you.

-One of her friends, Gord,
is dependent on benzo dope.

-This is dangerous shit.
Listen to me.

-Yeah.
-I'm not even kidding.

-This right here
is a pink right here.

This seems to be the higher
kind of benzo shit

out there right now.

This is the dropper, man.

-It sure runs on the tinfoil
real fast, eh?

-Jumps around a lot.

-Phew, you can smell that shit.

-People are dying without even
having the tinfoil down,

you know?
They're taking a hoot

and they're just dead.

Gord, wake up.

Come on.
-Cuz.

-Gordo.

-Cuz.
-I am.

-Okay, get up.

-You can't even tell
if they're actually going down

because they're still talking to
you and then they're going out.

Gordo.

It's getting a little funky.

-You go from, like,
this normal skin tone

to, like, a white, like,
light blue, and then you're --

and it's like the life
is being sucked out of you.

-Where's the Narcan kit?

Gord, wake up
or I'm gonna Narcan you.

They call it robbery dope.

You can given somebody a hoot

and you don't even have to
rob them.

You just let them do a hoot
and they're out.

Gord.

Gord.

-My sister died here,

and I-I just can't deal with --
like, I flip right out,

and I kind of --
like, it's really hard for me.

I just want to help,
and I don't know what to do.

-Gord, do you need
some naloxone or what?

-No.
-Okay.

Are you hungry? Did you eat?

Did you eat?

-No.

-They just become, like,
zombies almost.

Like, they're just there.

Benzos are just insane.

It's scary shit.

♪♪

-They can try and justify that
they're selling a better dope,

but at the end of the day,
they're still dealing death.

They're still
ripping families apart

and they're still
burying people.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-The other night
was pretty intense.

It looked like Gord
was going to overdose,

so we're checking in on him
to see if he's okay.

♪♪

How are you feeling today?

-Pretty tired from yesterday.

-I do want to talk more
about what happened,

because, yeah,
it was pretty intense.

-Yeah. I don't even remember.

-You don't?
-Nothing.

-Okay.
-I don't remember anything.

-Do you remember, like, us --
me being here?

-Yeah, I remember you being
here, and I remember talking to

you and I remember doing, like,
putting some on the foil

and smoked a little bit,
and then that's it.

-That's it?
-Yeah, I don't remember, like,

what happened after that.

-You know,
your cousin was saying that

she's worried that
you might die.

-Yeah, I know.

She has been for a while.

-What do you think's going to
happen with you

in the next, like,
couple months?

-I think that I'll probably die.

-You do?
-Maybe, yeah.

Like, if I make it to 40,
I'll be surprised.

Like, I'm 39 now,
and I'll be 40 in May.

I'd be pretty surprised.

Most people I know
make it to 27,

28, 29, 30, around there, right?

I know someone that dies
every day almost.

♪♪

-There's a generation of
young drug users

who only know the new reality
of a supply

with potent synthetic drugs.

There's been a jump
in teen overdose deaths,

both in British Columbia
and in the U.S.

[ Sirens wailing in distance ]

-My ex was so addicted to
benzos,

I constantly had to smoke it,
and I'm trying to

get over it now...
-Yeah.

-...but I'm addicted to the non,

and I'm trying really hard
to get over it.

-When did you tell that there
was something off with the dope?

-I figured out there was
something wrong with the dope

when I was given one hoot
and I woke up the next morning

with my pants around my ankles.

-Oh, Jesus.
-And I realized if I was raped

and I didn't wake up and,
you know, I just --

not through any of it.
I should have woken up.

Especially if it was
normal dope,

I still would have woken up.

-Carrie began using heroin
when she was 13.

Three years later,
she's addicted to benzo dope.

-I have had a lot of pain
and trauma in my life, a lot.

And it just...

um...

I'm sorry.
[ Sniffles ]

A lot of my trauma and pain
could have been prevented

if I didn't make the choices
that I made,

and I just want, like,

to share my story and stuff
to prevent a lot of other girls

from either going through that
or girls who have experienced it

so they know they're not alone,

and that they can
get through it.

-Can you tell
when there's a difference

between the benzo dope
and then the other dope?

-I can see a big difference.

It's like you smoke a good
amount, and then after a while,

you kind of start to nod,
and benzos,

you don't even get to blow
that out yet

and your face is already
in the ground.

-Have you overdosed?

-Oh, yeah.
-Like, how many times?

-Many. I don't remember.

♪♪

-Carrie moved out of
her mom's house in November

after her mom told her
she couldn't stay

if she kept using drugs.

She's been homeless
and couch hopping since.

Carrie's dad says that sometimes

he goes weeks
without hearing from her.

When's the last time
you saw Carrie?

-Two or three weeks ago.

Met her at McDonald's,
bought her a coffee.

Had a nice little talk.

Got to hear "I love you."

Um, but it's a shell.

It's not my daughter.

It's the shell of her.

It's not who I used to know.

I've got four biological kids.

Three of them are stuck
in addiction.

There is no norm in my life.

There's no normal Christmas.

There's no normal
family dinners.

There's no normal Thanksgiving.

You can't bring any of them into
the house because they take.

And I understand
it's a survival mode.

Doesn't make it right.

-Have you noticed a difference

in how Carrie's been
in the last couple years

since she started using
benzo dope?

-I see weight loss to the point
of serious concern.

I recognize her physically,

but there's no emotion
that I recognize.

That's not my child anymore.

I don't know if any of
my three kids have died

in the last 20 minutes.

That's reality. I don't.

I know they have not died
24 hours ago because the police

have not phoned me
to identify a body.

But that thought goes through
my mind every day

for all three of my kids.

-And what is that like
for you as a dad?

-[ Voice breaking ] Kills you.

The biggest fear is the death.

Her elder sister,
between 8 and 12 times,

I've gone to
the Abbottsford Hospital

for overdose,
and when you look at your child

and zero response,
you wonder if the next time

you're looking at her
is to identify them.

♪♪

-So, we have spent some time
with dealers, you know,

around Abbottsford
who are selling

a version of fentanyl
that they say is not as toxic

as the benzo dope
and some of these newer drugs

that are kind of
hitting the market now.

What do you make of that?

-They can try and justify that
they're selling a better dope,

a cleaner dope.

Death is still death.

Fentanyl has killed,
has taken lives.

Every person that sells fentanyl

should be charged with murder.

Somebody has died because of
what they have sold.

They're justifying
in their own mind

why they're doing
what they're doing.

But at the end of the day,
they're still dealing death.

They're still
ripping families apart

and they're still
burying people.

♪♪

-Can you describe the extent of
some of these wounds?

Like, they seem very serious.

-Some of them are open,
they're gaping,

there's tissue exposed.

And some of it's down to
the bone.

Some of them just look like
small open sores

on the skin all over.

It can be on their hands,
on their neck,

and on their face,
and it's going untreated.

♪♪

♪♪

-Drugs mixed with fentanyl
aren't the only thing

making this latest wave of
the overdose crisis so deadly.

Black market chemists are
creating designer drugs in labs,

manufactured to mimic the
effects of traditional drugs

while stopping just short of
breaking the law.

Data exclusively shared
with VICE News shows powerful

substances showing up in
the U.S.'s illegal supply.

A new stimulant that can kill
you is being sold as Molly

and ecstasy in nine U.S. states.

A synthetic cannabinoid that can
put you in a coma or kill you

has been found in 13 states.

And a synthetic opioid
20 times stronger than fentanyl

is being sold as dope
in 20 states.

♪♪

-So early on,
the opioid crisis was linked to

prescription opioid tablets
that then sort of

evolved into the heroin period.

That heroin period then evolved
into what was considered

the third wave
or the fentanyl wave.

I think it's very clear now
that we have entered

this poly-drug wave
when you have fentanyl

being mixed with
other stimulants

or benzodiazepines
or other drugs.

-These new drugs are all
being tracked and monitored

by Alex Krotulski,
a forensic toxicologist

at NPS Discovery.

Over the past four years,
his program has identified

over 100 new drugs in the U.S.,

more than 30
in the last 12 months.

-What we've seen is that
when the DEA generally schedules

a drug or a class,
it does go away.

However, that opens the door for
a new drug to take its place.

-I've heard this sort of race
to keep track of

all these different drugs
described as

a game of Whac-A-Mole, where
new ones just keep popping up.

Is that an assessment
you would agree with?

-Synthetic drugs,
it does feel like a bit of

a game of Whac-A-Mole.

We generally understand
that they may go away,

but it's really hard to predict
the next thing

that's going to come.

-To find the new
synthetic drugs,

Alex and his team get
street samples

from medical examiners,
coroner's offices,

crime labs,
and other public agencies.

-So these are heroin packets
that were sent to us.

Knowing that it's
from Philadelphia

and knowing our history,
I would assume

that it has fentanyl
and xylazine.

♪♪

-Xylazine is a tranquilizer
most commonly used on horses,

but it's now being used

to make the effects of fentanyl
last longer.

Like benzos, it knocks out users
for hours at a time

and doesn't respondent
to naloxone,

which makes identifying it
in the supply

all the more important
for scientists like Krotulski.

-Each drug has their sort of own
fingerprint associated with it,

so it will pair up
the chemical fingerprint

of the drugs in our sample
with a chemical fingerprint

of the drugs
in our library database.

So, this is an example of
a powder that contains xylazine.

So you have this big
xylazine peak right here,

which, again, matches
to our library against xylazine,

and then a fentanyl peak
over here.

So this is what
we very commonly see

in samples from Philadelphia.

-So, this one has more xylazine
than fentanyl.

-So there's 24 times the amount
of xylazine to fentanyl in here.

It's a massive amount, and we --

Unfortunately, this is
not uncommon for us to see.

We do see very, very large
amounts of xylazine

compared to fentanyl.

-Xylazine has been detected
in at least 10 states

but is most prevalent
in Pennsylvania,

where in 2020, it was found

in 1/4 of all of Philadelphia's
fatal overdoses,

a 19% jump from 2019.

Why do you think the xylazine

has infiltrated the fentanyl
supply in Philly to this degree?

-I wish I had an answer.

I think that's sort of,
in some parts,

the million-dollar
question right now.

It's been extremely
surprising to me

how long xylazine
has stayed around

and how ubiquitous it now is in
the Philadelphia opioid supply.

♪♪

-Fentanyl cut with xylazine
is called tranq or tranq dope.

Its impact in Philadelphia
is most evident in Kensington.

The neighborhood's commonly
called an open-air drug market,

because people buy, sell,
and use drugs like tranq

right on the street.

We have eight tables today.

Table one, Narcan,
fentanyl test strips,

water, hand sanitizer, masks.

-Five years ago, Sarah Laurel
founded Savage Sisters,

an organization that runs sober
living homes, needle exchanges,

and naloxone trainings.

-I ask that you just
be really mindful

that we are walking into
their territory.

This is their space.

And we want to meet them with
love and light and kindness.

We're giving them everything
that we can for free.

We're here to help.

And let's go serve our beautiful
friends in Kensington.

Yes.
[ Cheers and applause ]

♪♪

-When I was getting high,
it was just fentanyl and heroin.

And recently, they've been
putting tranquilizer in it.

And it is so dangerous,

because people are getting a lot
of open wounds on their skin.

They're getting infections.

They're continuously
injecting it.

They look like
they are not alive.

♪♪

We are heading to
McPherson Square Park,

known on the streets
as Needle Park.

It's where we do our outreach
every week,

and it's where a lot of my
friends are currently homeless.

♪♪

-Last year, Philadelphia's
health department reported

that 91% of heroin and fentanyl
samples also had xylazine.

♪♪

-There's people in this park
that need help.

But I want to let you know
that if you a user,

if you on heroin
or you on fentanyl,

then please get off that,
'cause it is going to kill you.

-We're in Kensington
with Savage Sisters.

They have set up tents to help
people who are using tranq

with their wounds.

I've seen people
with missing fingers,

with blackened skin,
really serious lesions.

-Some of this are cuts, and some
is just really dry blood.

Do you shoot up in your hands?

Alright, well,
for the time being,

I know it's easier
said than done,

because wherever you find one,
you want to use it,

but try not your hands, okay?
'Cause your hands are --

Your hands are
a little beat up, babe.

-Can you describe the extent
of some of these wounds?

Like, they seem very serious.

-Some of them are open.
They're gaping.

There's tissue exposed.

Some of it's down to the bone.

Some of them just look like

small, open sores
on the skin all over.

It can be on their hands, on
their neck, and on their face.

And it's going untreated.

We see a lot of people

that are having to lose limbs
because of it.

And then we see
other individuals

that maybe haven't lost it yet
but most likely will.

-Let me take a look at you, hon.

You want me to clean that up
a little bit?

♪♪

Can I see that finger
over there?

Want me to get that
cleaned up a little?

Boy, this is angry.

You need to be on an antibiotic
or something.

I mean, you don't want to lose
more of your finger, right?

You get yourself to that
emergency room, okay, tomorrow?

-Thank you.

♪♪

-What's happening
with your hands?

-Abscesses caused by

whatever they're putting
within the drugs, right,

is coming out
just about anywhere in the body.

You know, I never shoot up
in my hands,

but yet I get abscesses
in my knuckles,

in my tips of my fingers.

-Do you have
these types of abscesses

in other parts of your body?

-Lot of it's internal.

-A lot of internal?

-Yeah, a lot of
internal abscesses, right.

-You lost
your other finger, right?

-Exactly. That was
because of tranq.

Got infected.

And the treatments
wasn't working.

And eventually, it just, like,
died, turned pure white.

-Do you think that you might
lose that finger?

-Yeah.

♪♪

-While some try to avoid tranq,

others, like Sam Brennan,
need it.

How was the high different
from the fentanyl?

-It's really not even,
like, a high.

It's like, you do it,
and you go out.

You don't remember going out,

and you wake up,
and you're sick.

And it's that quickly.

And it's a way more intense
sickness than fentanyl was.

Like, it went --
Brown dope was, like, hardly --

Like, you're hardly
getting sick from that.

That was, like, nothing.

Fentanyl was a little bit worse.

But this tranq is intense.

Like, you feel like
you're literally going to die.

-You've got sort of a cut
on your neck.

-Yeah. It's --

-It looks painful.

-Yes, it's from interjecting
with the xylazine, the tranq.

♪♪

Sometimes I muscle pop,
intramuscular,

because this hurts so bad.

But when I intramuscular it,
whatever's in it,

it's making those lesions,
and I get holes,

and it just, like,
eats away at your skin.

It's, like, not even about
getting high anymore.

It's about not being sick.

[ Sniffing ]

♪♪

-See, it looks like we have
about 700 advertisements

right now
from 109 different suppliers.

-Wow.

Wow.
-Yeah.

-109 suppliers.

-Yeah.
-Just on this one site?

-Just on this one site.

♪♪

[ Indistinct conversations ]

♪♪

-One reason synthetic drugs
are taking up so much space

in the drug supply here
might surprise you --

U.S. foreign policy.

From 2014 to 2019,

much of North America's fentanyl
supply came from one place.

-As you know,
most of the fentanyl,

which is killing 80,000
Americans a year,

it comes through China.

-But in 2019, China,

under pressure from the Trump
administration, banned fentanyl.

Seizures of fentanyl in the U.S.
supply dropped that year,

only it didn't last long.

Companies in China pivoted,
from selling fentanyl

to marketing substances
that mimic its effects,

as well as the compounds
that make it up.

Those compounds were bought
by Mexican cartels,

who are now
manufacturing fentanyl

and trafficking it
back into the U.S.

Over 100,000 Americans
died of a drug overdose

in the one-year period
ending last November,

the most in U.S. history.

Jim Carroll was President
Trump's drug czar.

He led the push
to get China to ban fentanyl.

We have record
overdoses in the U.S.,

and fentanyl is still pervasive,

so do you think
that the ban was successful?

-It was successful
because the flow of fentanyl

from China to the U.S. ended.

So that part was
absolutely successful.

In terms of, you know,
the number of Americans dying,

you know, clearly, right now,
that's not a success.

And now, with more availability
than ever before,

with the --
not only the amount of drugs

but the lethality of the drugs
that are on the streets,

that's what's causing a rise
in these fatal overdoses,

these poisonings that are
taking place across the country.

-Were you worried about creating
a vacuum for more potent drugs?

-We know and we knew back then

that eliminating China as
the main source, direct source,

that the traffickers were not
going to end that quickly.

We knew that they would take
other steps

to get it into the U.S.,
but you have to try.

You have to stop it
as much as you can.

-Our reporting has shown

that there's actually
new tranquilizers and benzos

that are now being
cut into the fentanyl supply.

And so that's making
the fentanyl supply

even more dangerous.

More people are dying.

Were you concerned

about that being a possible
consequence of the fentanyl ban?

-No.

At the beginning of this,

everyone called this the opioid
crisis.

We don't have an opioid crisis.

We have an addiction crisis.

We don't know what drug,
quite frankly, will be here

20 years from now.

We need to treat this
as the disease we know it is

and make sure that we know

exactly what is
coming into the U.S.

and try to curtail

the trafficking of drugs
into the U.S.

-Do you feel any sense
of responsibility

for some of these new chemicals

that are kind of
replacing fentanyl?

-No. No. We knew the traffickers
would continue to try.

We were able to get
a ban on fentanyl.

We want to absolutely prohibit

all of these synthetics
from coming in.

What we're seeing
in some of these cities

is a switch to a new drug,
a different drug.

It doesn't mean
that they switched, you know,

because of something that,
you know, we did wrong.

They're switching because
that's what's available.

Traffickers, whether it's
from China or Mexico

or someplace else,

will send whatever drug
they have to the U.S.

in the hopes that someone
will become addicted to it

and continue to buy it.

-Do you have faith in being able
to stop the supply?

I mean, we've have had
50 years of the war on drugs,

and it hasn't really worked.

-It's worked when we've
made a decision to stop it.

It made the difference
when we went to China

and said,
"Stop sending it to the U.S."

We were able to drive down

the availability
of some of these drugs.

-But now it's worse than ever.

Teen overdoses are up, as well,

and apparently, it's due
to the potency of the drugs.

-Right, because
it's cheaper and easier

to have incredibly lethal
synthetic drugs

than ever before.

-That's partly because
the chemicals used

to make fentanyl, benzo dope,
and tranq dope

are being sold online.

♪♪

-A lot of the supply chains

have kind of emerged
through the Internet.

If you leave that
out of the picture,

then you're missing a lot

of sort of that initial stage
in the supply chain

of where some of the stuff
is coming from.

-Nicole Cook
is a narcotics analyst,

tracking websites advertising
these drugs on the open web.

The websites can be
sophisticated,

with high-quality photos,
product descriptions,

and customer reviews.

The companies often list
CAS numbers,

a string of digits that
correspond with a known drug.

-The first step that I'll do

is I will search
for the CAS number.

So if you don't know what it is

for a specific chemical
that you're interested in,

you can really easily
just bring it up on Google.

You can search for,
for example, xylazine.

So, once you have the CAS number

for the chemical
you're interested in,

then you just enter it in here.

And it will bring up sort of
hundreds of advertisements

for the chemical
that you're interested in.

So, see, it looks like we have
about 700 advertisements

right now
from 109 different suppliers.

-Wow.

Wow.
-Yeah.

-109 suppliers.

-Yeah.
-Just on this one site?

-Just on this one site.

So, here's another example
of a xylazine advertisement.

Minimum order quality
is 1 kilogram, so quite large.

But when you scroll down to
the bottom of the advertisement,

you have this "Other hot
products" section, where you see

it's just a list of,
I don't know, maybe 20 or so.

And right away,
to me, this jumps out.

This is a fentanyl precursor.

As far as I know, has nothing
to do with animal tranquilizers

or any sort
of veterinary purpose.

So this whole list here,
I think,

is probably going to be
pretty useless to you

if you're using xylazine in its,
like, licit, intended purpose.

-But could be very useful if you
were an illegal drug supplier.

-Sure, yeah, yeah.

-Do you think
that these companies realize

that these chemicals are being
diverted into the black market?

-I think that the way
that they are advertised

suggests at least a knowledge of
who the end user ends up being,

given that they're often bulking
these chemicals together

with other ones that can be used
for fentanyl synthesis.

Once a synthetic drug
is controlled,

they will tweak
the chemical structure of it

so that way,
it's different enough

that it's not
covered by the law,

but you still get
the same sort of end effect.

-I feel like, I don't know, my
head is spinning a bit,

because it just seems like

there are so many different
avenues that you could pursue,

that if one gets shut down,

there's like a million other
ones that you could chase.

-Yeah, and that's really
the challenge

when it comes to regulating
that side of the drug crisis

is that once you control
a substance,

another one will just
pop up in its place.

♪♪

-I thought that the second
I mentioned fentanyl,

they would want to stop
the conversation.

And instead, they're telling me
that xylazine is hot in the USA,

you know, in response

to me asking
if it's similar to fentanyl.

♪♪

[ Indistinct conversations ]

♪♪

-We wanted to contact a supplier

selling synthetic drugs
on the open web.

After several attempts,

we managed to get through
to a salesperson

for a chemical company
based in Wuhan, China.

"I'm interested
in some of your products.

Can you talk on the phone?"

♪♪

Oh. Typing.

♪♪

"Sorry, friend,
WhatsApp unable to answer call."

Okay.

She's saying, "Which item
are you interested in?"

So I asked
if they carry xylazine,

and the response was,
"Yes, friend, available.

Sent to USA?"

"Yes, I'm in the U.S.

Will there be any issues
with customs?"

♪♪

"UPS, friend!

Guarantee safe delivery 100%."

I'm asking, "Do you know if you
can combine this with fentanyl?"

meaning the xylazine.

She says, "Haha, friend,
fentanyl banned in China.

We don't have it."

"Is xylazine similar to
fentanyl? The effect of it."

She says, "I guess so, friend,
as it's very hot in the USA."

I'm just surprised
by their reaction.

I thought that the second
I mentioned fentanyl,

they would want to stop
the conversation.

And instead, they're telling me
that xylazine is hot in the USA,

you know, in response

to me asking
if it's similar to fentanyl.

"Do you know
what it's being used for

in the U.S.?"

♪♪

"Friend, for safety,
we never discuss with client

for the purpose.

Sometimes it's sensitive
for clients!

And sometimes
if clients told you

they use chemicals
to make forbidden drug!

Then it's illegal for us
to sell items to them."

I'm asking if these products
are legal in the U.S.

♪♪

"They are legal in China, haha."

♪♪

I said, "What if it gets seized
by U.S. police?"

They said, "We resend you."

So, very straightforward,
very honest answers,

and it just makes it seem
that much easier

to get your hands on pretty much
any chemical you want.

Like, this isn't even
the dark web.

♪♪

To address the crisis,
President Joe Biden

is picking up where the last
administration left off.

In March, he released
his 2023 fiscal year budget.

It includes $18 billion

for domestic and international
law enforcement

and to try to disrupt
the flow of drugs into the U.S.

But Biden's also proposing

something no other
president has done,

a historic $85 million specified
for harm reduction services

like getting people fentanyl
test strips, sterile syringes,

and naloxone.

Only, Congress
still needs to pass it.

And even if they do,

dealers like Keisha
warn it's not enough.

-The drugs are only
going to get stronger.

Eventually, there's
not going to be

anything to do with
heroin or fentanyl.

It's going to be all chemical,
all from the dark web,

all just something people
have thrown in a bowl

and sold it as fent or heroin.

All the people I knew during
when I was young, growing up,

to now, in the drug trade,
they're all dead.

I don't see anybody -- Nobody's
face is familiar anymore.

♪♪

-I could have been a athlete,
but instead I chose the street,

pumping dope and holding heat.

Nothing but nightmares
when I sleep.

I woke up so many cold and
hungry nights up in that bing,

but -- I wouldn't
change a thing.

-Almost two months after
our trip to British Columbia,

we learned that Gord's body
was found under a bridge.

He died of an overdose a month
before his 40th birthday.

-Armed in lead,
leaving them dead.

-- the feds.
I'm dodging and weaving them

like Adrian Peterson.

-Yo.
-Just something like that,

right, you know?
-Not bad.

-I'm on some East Coast
shit, right?

But I'm in the West,
though, right?

I still got time.

But, like, I feel like
it's closing in.

Right?

And I got to do something soon.

♪♪

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