[rkoten]

Doesn't the same logic apply if you're a legitimate provider?

[DuskStar]

Sort of, but the calculus changes. In a regulated market, costs are likely to be dominated by the cost of the product, cost of service, regulations and taxes - shipping a truckload of product legally isn't going to come close to that. But with illegal drugs, cost of transport is one of the biggest contributors to cost, and so taking steps to minimize that is worthwhile.

For instance, cocaine costs ~2k/kg in backcountry Columbia, but ~20k/kg in US cities [0] (at least at the time the article was researched). And when your transport costs dominate that much, almost every way to reduce volume and weight is justified.

0: https://www.businessinsider.com/from-colombia-to-new-york-ci...

[taurath]

You’d rather have a truck load of legal goods than a briefcase full of illegal goods. Illegality is a big cost.

[celticninja]

Not if the equivalent value was the same. The briefcase is easier and less conspicuous to transport.

[duncan-donuts]

Probably? Hospitals use fentanyl all the time and I’d imagine they have no problem with dosing. It’s probably pretty great to have enough pain killers on hand for an entire hospital and not needing 100x the space (or whatever the scale is)

[Scoundreller]

Funny how you say that.

Fentanyl solution for injection that hospitals get is a lot less potent than the hydromorphone solutions for injection that they can stock.

(50mcg/mL vs 10, 20, 50 or 100mg/mL).

As for the actual dosing... fentanyl is a lot more forgiving than morphine or hydromorphone, as measured by therapeutic index.

[sedeki]

I believe fentanyl can be provided in a relatively safe form if it was legal.

[kerridge0]

No because of the increased risk of death means you might get a worse reputation if people OD.