Goody, humans. Welcome to the safe space for dangerous ideas. Here's a dangerous idea for you. Why don't you go ahead and hop on the dark web and hit up a Chinese fentanyl drug manufacturer, one of the largest illicit drug labs in the world in China. Why don't you pose as a drug dealer, fly to China and get a little tour.

Got a little tour with the drug mafia of one of the biggest fentanyl labs in the world.

That's what today's guest did.

He was going undercover, reporting for his incredible book.

It's called fentanyl ink, how rogue chemists

created the deadliest wave of the opioid epidemic. He's written about the fentanyl crisis

for the Los Angeles Times, for the Atlantic, for the New York Times. He's an expert in this,

and he has an amazing story about how he uncovered and understood

exactly what is going on with the synthetic opioid crisis in the United States.

Will Donald Trump's crackdowns on the Mexican border stanch the flow of fentanyl into the United

States?

Why are other rich countries less affected by the opioid crisis than the United States? Why are other rich countries less affected by the opioid crisis

than the United States? And how did fentanyl cause the worst drug crisis in American history?

You will understand all of that and so much more after hearing this fabulous chat with the one

and only Ben Westoff.

These pills are all just pressed by drug traffickers to look like percocet.

So, you know, if you get a pill from your actual doctor or a pharmacy, it'll be fine. But that's the main way fentanyl is distributed now

is through pills. And you can buy a pill pressing machine from China that makes it look exactly

like a Xanax or an oxycontin or anything you want. And you would do that if you're a drug dealer. Why?

Well, you, you know, you sell these pills as the name brand. And so an actual

prescription Xanax might cost wholesale like $5 or more. I don't know. But you can get one of

these fake Xanaxes and it costs maybe 50 cents to make or something like that.

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