Summary: Canadian police dismantled the largest drug “super lab” in the country, seizing a record amount of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and firearms. The operation was linked to organized crime and had been mass-producing and distributing drugs across Canada and internationally.

  • A1kmmA
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    2 days ago

    54 kg of fentanyl is an insane amount to have all in one place.

    Just to put it in perspective:

    • Assuming the lethal dose (LD50) of fentanyl in humans is similar to in mice (probably a good assumption), it is 7 mg / kg of body weight by injection. Assuming an average body weight of 70 kg, 54 kg is enough to kill 110,204 people.
    • Apparently for opiate tolerant people (e.g. addicts), the therapeutic dose for strong pain relief is 12 μg / h, so in a month, an addict wanting to stay dosed up the whole time might use 8.64 mg total. 54 kg is enough to supply 6.25 million addicts for a month.
    • According to a UNODC estime, in 2023, there were about 60.3 million opioid (including opiate) users worldwide, including prescription drug users. So that one stockpile could supply 1/10th of the world’s opioid users for a month. It almost certainly isn’t for supplying prescription drug users, and many opioid addicts likely try to avoid fentanyl, and there are other competing sources - so 1/10th is a lot.

    I’m not sure why they’d stockpile so much in one place, given they apparently have the capacity to manufacture more - unless they were planning to use it to kill people (see: they also had a weapons cache and explosives) instead of to sell as a drug. Or perhaps the 54 kg is an exaggeration and includes packaging and so on.

    • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      Or perhaps the 54 kg is an exaggeration and includes packaging and so on.

      Bet $20 the 54 kg includes the weight of the cutting agents in stuff that was already cut to ~heroin strength