An investigative journalist and author says the current epidemic of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid more powerful than heroin, will not go away by stopping its flow into the United States.
Ben Westhoff was the first Western journalist to visit labs in China, where its chemical precursors are made — though generally not the drug itself, which is illegal in China except for limited medical uses. Those chemical precursors are exported, and many end up in Mexico, where they are made into fentanyl and smuggled into the United States via cartels.
“What I learned is that there is no way we stop drugs from getting into this country,” Westhoff said Wednesday, May 1, during the opening talk of the 2024 International Speaker Series sponsored by World Oregon.
Instead, he said, “we need to focus” on reducing demand, providing medication-assisted treatment, counseling, housing and related services — and improving education. He said this is particularly important for young people who obtain what they think is legitimate medication via the internet, but then die of fentanyl poisoning.
“Any pill or powder is likely to have fentanyl in it,” said Westhoff, who has a 12-year-old son. “It’s a scary time to be a teenager.”
Westhoff’s 2019 book, “Fentanyl, Inc.,” describes how fentanyl emerged as the third wave of the nation’s opioid epidemic, which began with domestic overprescription of the painkiller OxyContin (oxycodone) and then when users turned to heroin as an alternative. The latter is drawn from opium poppies.
“You need big fields, it takes a long time to grow them, and it’s susceptible to law enforcement. Fentanyl can be made in a lab very quickly and it is 50 times stronger than heroin,” he said.
“There was a huge profit incentive for drug traffickers to switch from heroin to fentanyl, and as a result, fentanyl began to be cut into almost every drug out there. Fentanyl filled the void and that was the most deadly wave.”
Oregon’s situation
Westhoff spoke before the scheduled release May 3 of an after-action report following a 90-day fentanyl emergency in Portland declared by Gov. Tina Kotek. She declined twice on May 1 to discuss its content in advance with reporters.
Oregon recorded the nation’s largest increase in fentanyl-related deaths between 2019 and 2023. But Westhoff said such deaths have been surging nationally, and the entire West Coast has been affected in the fentanyl wave. Westhoff said that among the factors were the coronavirus pandemic and the shortage of housing.
Questioned by World Oregon president Derrick Olsen after his presentation, Westhoff — who lives with his family in Missouri — said he could not assess the influence of Oregon’s 2020 ballot initiative (Measure 110) that removed criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of fentanyl and four other specified drugs. (The measure did not legalize everything.)
“It seems to me that Measure 110 was enacted hastily before there were adequate resources for treatment and options for people to go to who needed help,” he said. “From talking with people here, that seems not to have been the case.”
The Oregon Legislature in its 2024 session has reinstituted criminal penalties for possession of those drugs — that provision takes effect Sept. 1 — but people arrested in at least 23 counties will have an option to deflect to treatment programs.
Given its relatively rapid reversal of policy — although the Legislature did not completely repeal the 2020 measure — “Oregon’s situation is almost unprecedented,” he said.
New Zealand underwent a similar experience a decade ago, but it involved synthetic cannabinoids designed to circumvent
Why he got involved
Westhoff had been a music journalist in California, where he attended raves — all-night dances where some participants took drugs such as LSD and MDMA, the latter known as Ecstasy. He reported on raves in the Bay Area in the 1990s, and again in Los Angeles in the 2010s. He had noticed that after the more recent raves, some deaths resulted — and he wondered why.
According to lab analyses of pills purporting to be MDMA, he said, “almost all of them came from China — and most of them were fentanyl.”
He said he learned that for an investment of between $1,000 and $2,000 per kilogram (2.2 pounds), a drugmaker could produce up to 1 million doses of fentanyl — and that was on the legitimate internet, not the so-called dark web for illegal activity.
His investigative trail led him to Wuhan, China, which is better known as the potential origin of the COVID-19 coronavirus that swept the world in 2020 and 2021. Wuhan, a city of 10 million, was home to a lab he visited that made precursor chemicals for fentanyl.
Westhoff showed photos of fentanyl or precursor chemicals packaged as wheat flour and even dog food.
After Westhoff reported about his visit to China, prior to the publication of his book, the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a warrant for the arrest of the company’s chief executive. But China has no extradition treaty with the United States. China has pledged a couple of times, most recently when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited China, to stop the export of fentanyl precursor chemicals.
Westhoff is at work on a documentary film, “Antagonist,” about Naltrexone, one of three federally approved medications to fight opioid addiction.
Most have never heard of it, unlike methadone, which is dispensed through clinics. In the case of a third anti-opioid medication, the person must be free of drugs before receiving an inoculation that lasts 30 days.
“I felt that maybe I could make a bit of a difference,” he said of his reporting on drugs, although he has no plans for a follow-up book based on his documentary.
(NOTE: Clarifies when and where Westhoff reported on raves and the deaths of some participants after the more recent raves from fentanyl.
Most Popular
Comments / 0