What Is Fentanyl and What are its Side Effects? LA and Chicago See Rise in Deaths from Drug More Potent Than Heroin

A version of the drug fentanyl, described as "200 times more powerful than heroin," is now rumored to be sweeping metropolitan cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago.

Authorities report fentanyl has long been abused by addicts in tandem with heroin, but the new synthetic version of the liquid form that has now hit the market is reported to have triggered an uptick in overdose related deaths across the region.

"It's monumental," Will County Coroner Patrick O'Neil recently told reporters. "I have never seen anything like it."

Drug Related Deaths on the Rise Across the Area

Over this year alone, the area neighboring Cook County has seen 53 overdoses and 18 deaths.

O'Neil is among those of the belief some of the victim's felled prey after they thought they were buying regular heroin, only to end up with the far more powerful synthetic version of the drug.

Fentanyl is one of the most powerful pain killers on the market and is regularly given to cancer patients to help ease their level of suffering.

Side Effects

Side effects of the drugs include respiratory depression, fever, vomiting, nausea and diaphoresis.

DEA officials speculate that the form of the drug now hitting the streets is flowing into the U.S. from China, or is being produced in small-time labs across the country. The National Forensic Laboratory Information System reports 5,217 seizures related to fentanyl were reported by law enforcement in 2014, with that number jumping to 8,511 by 2015.

Has Drug hit L.A. Area?

Indeed, overdose deaths believed related to the drug in the Los Angeles are also on the rise.

More and more, authorities report the drug, also billed as 100 times more powerful than morphine, has been found to be connected to overdose victims.

The L.A. County Department of Public Health recently revealed that white fentanyl-related deaths jumped to 62 in 2014 after hovering around roughly 4o over a two-year period beginning in 2011.

In addition, some 51 overdoses, 11 of them fatal, have been reported in the Sacramento County area over the last month.

"Obviously it's been big on the East Coast and Midwest, it's possible that it could be coming this way," said John Martin, special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration in San Francisco.