Two men have been sentenced to prison for possessing nearly 100 pounds of the drug Fentanyl. Fentanyl, also known as fentanil, is an opioid which is used as a pain medication and with other medications for anesthesia. Fentanyl, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is up to 100 times more potent than morphine and 25-50 times more potent than heroin. The drug is at the forefront of the spikes in overdoses currently overwhelming cities all across America. In fact drug overdoses from opioid use is driving down U.S. life expectancy. According to the National Center for Health Statistics for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2016, the average American’s life expectancy dropped to 78.6 years. In 2016, 63,600 people died of causes linked to drug use, largely opioids, including Fentanyl and heroin, which accounted for two out of three deaths linked to drug use. Users think they are buying heroin but they are in fact buying Fentanyl or heroin that is laced with Fentanyl. The result is that they are buying drugs that are potentially far more potent than anything they have ever taken. The two men had almost 100 pounds of the drug Fentanyl, enough to kill everybody in New Jersey and New York City or the entire population of Texas, the second most populous state in the union. Jesus Carrillo-Pineda, 31, of Philadelphia, was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison on charges of possession of heroin and Fentanyl with intent to distribute, while his partner, Daniel Vasquez, 28, of Somerton, Arizona, got six years. Police said they arrested the pair in a parking lot last year, after witnessing the Fentanyl being transferred from a tractor trailer driven by Vasquez and being put in the trunk of a Mercedes driven by Carrillo-Pineda.
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