The Story

China’s deadly role in America’s fentanyl epidemic

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Episode notes

America’s opioid crisis is now in its third decade and has killed more people than the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam combined. Fentanyl, the most commonly used synthetic opioid, is up to 50 times stronger than heroin. Made from chemicals manufactured in China, it’s then put into pill form in Mexico and smuggled across the border. As China and the US agree to crack down on the illegal trade, is China deliberately fuelling its rival’s opioid crisis? 

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