According to a new study from Australian National University, vendors on the dark web are selling heaps of illegal synthetic opioids that are 10,000 to 100,000 times stronger than a type of morphine that's used as a sedative for elephants.
Cybercrime analysts researched six mainstream dark web markets in January and February in order to find out what drugs were for sale, and they were concerned by the amount of carfentanil and fentanyl they discovered.
The Strongest Opioid in the World
The deadly pain killer carfentanil was developed with the purpose of sedating elephants and other large animals.
The Washington Post reported that customers in a U.S.-based park were warned not the eat bison meat when the animals were sedated with the drug, because they may overdose as a result.
In their report, the Washington Post said that a seven-ton (7,000 kg) elephant could be killed with a small dose of 10 mg.
A small measurement equivalent to the weight of a paper clip could be fatal for 500 humans.
Australian National University Study
Australian National University was asked by the Australian Institute of Criminology to analyze the quantity of fentanyl that is sold online, and out of the total of 123,000 various drugs listed, the researchers found 7,400 opioids.
According to the study, a third of the listed fentanyl products were actually carfentanil in powder or solution form.
Roderic Broadhurst, a professor at Australian National University, noted in a statement that carfentanil is harder to produce than fentanyl.
Fentanyl can be made in a kitchen, but carfentanil cannot.
For the manufacturing of carfentanil, you need a properly equipped laboratory.
One of the things that makes carfentanil hard to detect is that very small amounts of it can be shipped through official customs channels.
Carfentanil is often laced with other drugs such as ecstasy.
The report also states that the tiny traces of carfentanil laced in other drugs makes it difficult detect in autopsies.
Broadhurst also said that the number of opioids they found on the dark web could be converted into billions of potentially deadly doses if you take into consideration the effect of carfentanil.
He said that we are on the verge of a new opioid epidemic caused by synthetic drugs such as carfentanil and fentanyl.
An average amount of 15 to 22 kilograms of fentanyl and carfentanil were available on the dark web, according to researchers.