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Illustration: Joseph P. Kelly
Business
Prognosis

This Killer Opioid Could Become a Weapon of Mass Destruction

Fentanyl is so potent that a few milligrams can be fatal. Could it be used to attack the U.S.?

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It would take only 118 pounds of fentanyl to kill 25 million people.

That’s how much of the powerful opioid painkiller Nebraska State Trooper Sam Mortensen found in April when he stopped a truck marked “U.S. Mail” swerving onto the shoulder along Interstate 80.