I just discovered a missing piece of the fentanyl story

Background note: Doctors can prescribe a drug for uses other than those for which it was approved. Drug companies can’t promote such off-label uses.

I’ve written much about the killer drug, fentanyl.

I’ve correctly called it chemical warfare against the population.

I just found a piece of its history I was unaware of.

The FDA originally approved the drug for the treatment of cancer patients’ extreme pain, which couldn’t be curtailed with other opioids. Doctors would use a line of lesser painkillers first, and if they didn’t work, they would give fentanyl as a last resort.

Then, years later, doctors began prescribing fentanyl for off-label uses. This is legal. Doctors are permitted to exercise judgment in that regard.

But what it meant was: some doctors were no longer trying a whole line of less dangerous painkillers first; and they weren’t giving fentanyl exclusively to cancer patients.