In 2016, Rachel Winograd began to see methadone patients who relapsed or left the treatment program where she worked start overdosing and dying at unprecedented rates. The culprit was illicitly manufactured fentanyl, which is generally 50 times as strong as heroin — with some variants an astonishing 5,000 times as potent. Fentanyl had begun to overtake heroin in Missouri. It would “enable” continued addiction and deter treatment, she was told. Or, others said, reducing fatalities would increase risk-taking among people who were already using drugs — and encourage children to try heroin.

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Persons: Rachel Winograd, overdosing, “, ”, Winograd Organizations: University of Missouri, Louis’s Missouri, of Mental Health Locations: Missouri, St, Louis’s