美国有线新闻 CNN 芬太尼加剧美国毒品危机（在线收听）

Getting started this Monday, it's considered one of the most dangerous drugs in the world. It factors in heavily to the heroin epidemic we've reported on in the U.S. But it's also blamed for deaths in Europe, Africa, and Australia.

Fentanyl is a manmade painkiller. The United Nations recently put restrictions on some of the chemicals used to make it. It says fentanyl is the strongest painkiller in existence for medical use, but then it's also highly addictive and especially dangerous when abused because it's so powerful, many times stronger than even heroin itself.

Fentanyl used to be found only in pharmacies. Now, it's showing up in counterfeit pills, much of what's being sold on the black market contains fentanyl. It's much more potent than prescription medications and it's killing people who take it.

One challenge for U.S. officials who are trying to stop its spread, the actual machines used to make the pills. They're arriving on American shores in record numbers and they're contributing to overdoses in every corner of the country.