Some spine-tingling facts about the American fentanyl carnage, the world's most lethal synthetic drug: It is 50 and 100 times more powerful than heroin and morphine, respectively, and it kills Americans in the tens of thousands annually.
Now, there are worrying reports that Thailand has been infested and Malaysia is next in line. We are, however, assured by Bukit Aman's Narcotics Crime Investigation Department that no fentanyl has breached the domestic market.
Cocaine, heroin, methadone and prescription opioids can't even compete with fentanyl's malignancy. Fentanyl's medicinal breakthrough was why it was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for pain relief and as an anaesthetic.
Encouraged by manufacturers and lobbyists, doctors prescribed fentanyl to treat severe post-surgery and advanced-stage cancer pain. Fentanyl turned out to be a potent synthetic opioid, and this is where the terrible irony rests: patients who survive surgery or deadly diseases perish by fentanyl, which was supposed to ease physical aftereffects.
Deaths from fentanyl overdose, sometimes laced with heroin and cocaine for a "better high", and prescription pills multiplied.
Why has fentanyl use surged phenomenally in the US? For one, fentanyl is easily self-administered through transdermal patches, lozenges and intravenous injection. It may also be related to the country's exorbitant and byzantine healthcare system.
Americans can't afford healthcare unless they have medical insurance. But millions don't, partly because it is complicated and expensive, even with the popular Obamacare, which helped democratise US healthcare.
Unlike many in the rest of the world who take it for granted, Americans are deprived of subsidised or free healthcare. So to game the system, Americans cross into Canada to buy cheap prescription drugs, but even this sensible method is prohibited by law due to big pharma's hard lobbying.
Because of their control over legislators and pharmaceutical laws, manipulated towards fattening their immense bottom line, a monthly drug regimen can cost more than the latest iPhone. So, sufferers resort to acquiring life-saving drugs, fentanyl included, from the black market and private websites, but unwittingly flirt with death.
So to stop fentanyl, the Health Ministry must monitor hospitals and clinics to ensure the opioid, in whatever form, is never prescribed.
It is complex: some drugs can contain fentanyl in tiny amounts that are tough to detect by taste or smell and almost impossible to tell unless tested. If it's not already done, the government must ban fentanyl prescriptions and frame it as an extremely dangerous drug never to be prescribed.
A major advantage we have in tackling a fentanyl scourge is that we don't emulate the abominable US healthcare system. For as long as we maintain our compassionate and affordable public healthcare system, we can fend off the fentanyl curse.
