“He died from a kilo of fentanyl that was hidden under a mattress.” This is how the life of a one-year-old child ended last Friday in a kindergarten in New York, in the Bronx. Police confirmed this after days of speculation about the cause of little Nicholas Dominici’s death. Now there is the official version: overdose.
According to police, Nicholas and three other children between the ages of eight months and two years – the latter were drunk and in the hospital – inhaled the fentanyl hidden under the mattress while sleeping.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 100 times stronger than morphine: the lethal dose is one granule, just touch it or breathe it in. In secret laboratories, the fentanyl molecule is reproduced and modified to obtain opiate derivatives of varying potency.
The nursery’s owner, Grei Mendez, 36, and employee Carlisto Acevedo Brito, 41, were arrested and face charges of manslaughter and drug possession.
Nicholas Dominici would have turned two in November. “I miss him, I want my son back,” said Otoniel Feliz, the child’s father, in tears, quoted by the BBC.
What is Fentanyl?
First synthesized by Paul Janssen in 1960, fentanyl is a powerful analgesic, a synthetic opioid used to treat pain, particularly in cancer, while it is used in combination with other substances for anesthesia. The World Health Organization has included it in the list of essential medicines for the treatment of advanced cancers.
There are more than 50 fentanyl derivatives used as narcotics and there is an epidemic in America due to their use: among these, carfentanil is the most powerful, with an analgesic effect ten thousand times greater than that of morphine (as has been found ). Widely used in veterinary practice to immobilize large animals such as elephants). “Drug wholesalers use fentanyl or molecules derived from it to enhance heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine (it has a competitive cost), increasing the risk of overdose because it is difficult to dose such powerful substances.”
The Opioid Epidemic in America
It’s been happening in the US since the early 2000s: Doctors prescribe strong opioid painkillers to relieve injury, chronic or post-operative pain. These drugs – hydrocodone (Vicodin), oxycodone (OxyContin, Percocet, Percodan, Tylox) and indeed the very strong fentanyl – cause a strong addiction: as soon as the prescription expires, we go to the black market, where heroin costs much less (often up to a tenth) and easier to find. The only difference is that heroin is illegal, but the drugs have been approved by the Federal Drug Administration.