# Why add Fentanyl to cocaine? (mild TV spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 26, 2021, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-add-fentanyl-to-cocaine-mild-tv-spoilers/953229 "2021-10-26T13:05:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-add-fentanyl-to-cocaine-mild-tv-spoilers/953229/21 "2021-11-03T00:28:25Z")
That dealers purposely cut stimulant drugs with fentanyl is an urban legend, easily debunked by the known things about the various drugs: 1: Speed and coke users don’t want an opiate experience, they want an UP experience. Meth or cocaine that makes one sleepy and noddy when used, would indicate something wrong to the user and thus be rejected. 2. There’s already a market (around here anyway) for fentanyl _as fentanyl_; long-term opiate users esteem it for potency, although the shorter duration of the high makes it a specialty product that many of those opiate users don’t like for that very reason, while the potency and frequent fatalities have led some heroin users to avoid fent like a plague. Thus, there’s no reason to be sneaking it into bags it doesn’t belong in. 3. Those who like speedballs usually prefer to mix theirs themselves, hence the prevalence of “one and ones”, or a bag of H and a bag of C sold together but packaged separately. The rumor was spread all over the place by square citizens who know jackshit about drugs but think they know it all, because these citizens tend to favor the scariest drug scare stories they read or hear. There have been some accidental contaminations from dealers who deal both products–ie some fentanyl accidentally got into the stash when the coke or crystal was being cut, weighed, and bagged. But deliberate mixing of upper drugs with fentanyl isn’t really a thing. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-add-fentanyl-to-cocaine-mild-tv-spoilers/953229/22 "2021-11-03T15:57:03Z")
I don’t have a cite and won’t vouch for its veracity, but I recall hearing on NPR someone say that having a customer die after using their product actually improved the reputation of the dealer among opioid addicts because it proved that he was giving out really strong stuff. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-add-fentanyl-to-cocaine-mild-tv-spoilers/953229/23 "2021-11-03T21:46:30Z")
That’s actually nothing new, and not just with opiates. ---
**Author:** ![LilXMo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lilxmo/32/4225_2.png) [@LilXMo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilXMo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-add-fentanyl-to-cocaine-mild-tv-spoilers/953229/24 "2021-11-05T01:15:01Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > For really hardcore addicts, finding out that they can get drugs that can, as you put it, super-duper kill you is part of the excitement of the addiction process. Understand that this is a false statement. There are no “really hardcore addicts” nor “super-duper kill you excitement for an addiction process.” [Psychiatry.org](http://Psychiatry.org) gives the definition of addiction as a mental health disease/disorder. An addict is an addict regardless of the drug of choice. No one drug is more addictive to an addict than another drug. No addict is looking for the excitement of living an “addiction process”. Obsession, compulsion and self-centeredness are hallmarks of the disease of addiction. The statement of seeking a kill you excitement indicates that it’s a choice to challenge death to get high. It’s a disease. The [cdc.gov](http://cdc.gov) discusses fentanyl, **Carfentanil** Is the illicit version, and polysubstance use. The benefit for the dealer is less product of the coke, meth, etc., by adding the fentanyl, and charging more for a “better or stronger” product. Addicts will figure out what it takes to get that product despite the increased cost. ---
**Author:** ![LilXMo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lilxmo/32/4225_2.png) [@LilXMo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilXMo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-add-fentanyl-to-cocaine-mild-tv-spoilers/953229/25 "2021-11-05T01:21:47Z")
@ El\_DeLuxo, everything you wrote is ridiculous. It’s not an urban legend that drugs are mixed, nor that people want the raw materials to mix their own creations like speedballs. I’m bordering on debate so I’ll leave it at that. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-add-fentanyl-to-cocaine-mild-tv-spoilers/953229/26 "2021-11-08T20:43:37Z")
Your reply was four days ago and I just now noticed it, and now I’ve got to bump the damned thread to answer, _No._ What I said wasn’t ridiculous or wrong, if you actually know anything about drugs and the clandestine market for same. You are severely misinformed. ---
**Author:** ![LilXMo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lilxmo/32/4225_2.png) [@LilXMo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilXMo)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2021, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-add-fentanyl-to-cocaine-mild-tv-spoilers/953229/27 "2021-11-18T01:59:51Z")
I just noticed your response. You are spreading false information. I know a lot about drugs, let’s leave it at that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-add-fentanyl-to-cocaine-mild-tv-spoilers/953229.md?page=1)