With the overdose death toll rising all over the world, it begs the question: what has influenced this influx of statistics?  More and more drug users have been found dead at the hands of fentanyl recently. Fentanyl is an opiate that is 100 times more powerful than the more common painkiller: morphine, and 750 times more powerful than codeine (via:Dr. Michelle Arnot, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Toronto). Basically, fentanyl is an extremely powerful painkiller that has extremely addictive properties. As of recent years, drug consumers have found that the drug fentanyl has the ability to be injected, chewed, smoked, or otherwise consumed. Fentanyl caused 58 percent of Maine drug fatalities in 2017, while heroin caused 21 percent, finding its way up to be #1 in America’s war on drugs. In 2005-2007 the culprit of the spiked overdoses was eased when a single laboratory in Mexico was abolished, only to then fluctuate once more. Who is the culprit of this massive influx of overdoses? China. Chinese people have increased successful production of fentanyl in small laboratories. The drug itself has found its way to Canada and the United States with ease and from the Western Coats, the port from Vancouver to California is open. Many are found to have an addiction to the painkillers of the drug industry. The toxicity of the drug and its hefty amount of deaths is maintaining its depressing rate even at today’s date. The news headlines as of late have been splattered at random with takedowns of individuals possessing this drug in excessive amounts. It has been making its way around the globe and poisoning people in its path.