- August 27, 2025
This medicine will add to the effects of alcohol and other central nervous system (CNS) depressants. CNS depressants are medicines that slow down the nervous system, which may cause drowsiness or make you less alert. This effect may last for a few days after you stop using this medicine. Some examples of CNS depressants are antihistamines or medicine for hay fever, allergies, or colds, sedatives, tranquilizers, benzodiazepines, other prescription pain medicine or narcotics, barbiturates or seizure medicines, muscle relaxants, or anesthetics (numbing medicines), including some dental anesthetics. Check with your doctor before taking any of the medicines listed above while you are using this medicine.
Fentanyl and marijuana are a potent and potentially deadly combination. This is especially true since many people who consume marijuana laced with fentanyl have never been exposed to fentanyl before, and so have not developed a tolerance to it. It is therefore imperative to know what fentanyl-laced weed is, and how to tell if weed fentanyl laced weed : an overview is laced with fentanyl. A healthcare provider will give you an injection of Fentanyl in a hospital or clinic.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid medicine that is up to 100 times stronger than other opioids like morphine, heroin, or oxycodone. Fentanyl is from the class of medicines called narcotic analgesics. Naloxone has been used for decades to reverse opioid-induced respiratory depression in both hospital (e.g., during surgery) and non-hospital settings (e.g., overdose by an illicit drug user).
You can read our online resource to find out where to buy fentanyl test strips. The most accurate way to test for fentanyl in weed is by using a test strip. Marijuana (or ‘weed’, as it is known on the street), refers to the dried flowers from the Cannabis Sativa or Cannabis Indica plant. There are over 500 chemicals present in marijuana, but the most prominent of those is THC (short for delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). THC is the psychoactive chemical in marijuana which causes an addictive ‘high’ feeling.
Preclinical studies have clearly established that fentanyl interacts in a competitive manner with opioid antagonists such as naltrexone (e.g., Comer et al., 1992; Cornelissen et al., 2018). As such, simply increasing the antagonist dose should be effective if the euphoric effects of fentanyl are not completely suppressed (naltrexone) or the respiratory depressant effects of fentanyl are not completely reversed (naloxone). An important caveat to the latter statement is that the effectiveness of naloxone in reversing fentanyl-related overdoses is not clear when alcohol or other drugs have been co-ingested with fentanyl or if a synthetic fentanyl-like drug has been used. Fentanyl produces short-term tolerance (measured using a phasic thermal tail flick test) through a G-protein receptor kinase-dependent (GRK3) mechanism, whereas morphine produces tolerance through a c-Jun N-terminal kinase-dependent mechanism and not GRK3 (Terman et al., 2004; Kuhar et al., 2015). Similarly, beta-arrestin-2-dependent JNK cascade signaling was responsible for morphine analgesic tolerance and locomotor sensitization but not that of fentanyl (Mittal et al., 2012). Many studies have demonstrated that fentanyl and morphine differ with regard to mechanisms of opioid tolerance and reinforcing effects.
Consistent with these results, doses up to 4.5 μg/kg (~315 μg/70 kg) did not significantly increase ratings of “bad effects” or “sick” in non-dependent recreational opioid users (Baylon et al., 2000). In contrast, 7 out of 8 healthy volunteers who received 3 μg/kg (~210 μg/70 kg) experienced nausea and 4 of them vomited; 3 of the 4 who vomited did so for up to 6 h after fentanyl administration (Scamman et al., 1984). Dizziness was reported by one additional subject, who remained prone for 8 h after drug administration (Scamman et al., 1984). It is not surprising that drug-inexperienced individuals would not report liking the effects of fentanyl. In sum, a great deal is known about the pharmacology of fentanyl using preclinical models and when it is used therapeutically in humans for anesthesia or analgesia.
Zacny et al. (1996a) reported that participants did report feeling “high” and “coasting (spaced out)” after receiving 100 μg/70 kg i.v. Fentanyl, but ratings of drug liking did not significantly differ from i.v. In one of the 2 studies reporting equivocal results (Zacny et al., 1992a), ratings of drug liking were transient and did not coincide with increased scores on the Morphine-Benzedrine Group (MBG) scale of the Addiction Research Center Inventory (ARCI), a measure widely used at the time to assess drug-induced euphoria.
Some other ways to spot fentanyl-laced weed include smelling it or examining it closely for the common signs of a laced joint. The first alert regarding fentanyl-laced weed was spread in 2018, to warn marijuana users of what they may be ingesting. Avenues Recovery Center has compiled an in-depth article covering everything you should know about fentanyl-laced weed. Learn why people lace weed with fentanyl, how to know if weed is laced, and what laced weed looks like. “Under Nebraska’s Good Samaritan Law, individuals who seek help for someone suffering a drug overdose are protected from certain drug-related charges, encouraging people to call for assistance without fear of prosecution,” the Omaha Police Department said. The addition of the anaesthetic can “intensify the drug’s side effects” — and because it isn’t an opioid, it also means an overdose on purple fentanyl can’t be reversed with Narcan, the Omaha Police Department warned.
If prolonged opioid use is required in a pregnant woman, advise the patient of the risk of neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome and ensure that appropriate treatment will be available. For fentanyl patches if you are using the skin patches on a schedule, apply the missed patch as soon as you remember. Continue wearing the patch for up to 72 hours and then apply a new one if needed for pain.
According to the DEA, 42% of pills they tested for fentanyl contained at least 2 mg of fentanyl, a potentially lethal dose. One kilogram of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people. One report has suggested that epidural fentanyl may mask the pain of myocardial ischemia in patients treated with fentanyl for other reasons. Another report has suggested that QTc interval prolongation may occur in some patients receiving the related narcotic sufentanil.