John Madinger - LETHAL DOSES: The Story Behind "The Godfather Of Fentanyl"

John Madinger - LETHAL DOSES: The Story Behind "The Godfather Of
Fentanyl"
4 days ago

On a cold afternoon in February 1991, a frightening new drug hit
the streets of New York City, a synthetic narcotic marketed in
packets labeled “Tango & Cash.” As police scrambled to warn
heroin users of the danger, the overdose victims began piling up in
hospital emergency rooms and county morgues across three
states.

As a Drug Enforcement Administration agent said at the time, “We
don’t know yet who’s putting this stuff out there, but whoever he
is, he’s an ice-cold son of a bitch.” Fentanyl had come to
America.

In 2024, fentanyl is killing nearly 200 Americans every day, and
not just heroin users, a seemingly unstoppable narcotic curse like
none ever seen before. But few know that this plague began in the
brilliant mind of the high-school dropout and chemistry prodigy
that the DEA called “the best and most dangerous clandestine
chemist” it has ever encountered.

The clandestine chemist was George Erik Marquardt. Starting at just
twelve years old, Marquardt used his extraordinary talents to make
every illegal drug in the book, from bootleg booze to heroin. He
brewed LSD for Timothy Leary and the Grateful Dead, methamphetamine
for outlaw motorcycle gangs, nerve gas for Idaho Nazis, and even
life-saving AZT for AIDS patients. But when that ice-cold son of a
bitch turned to fentanyl, thousands of Americans would die.

In LETHAL DOSES: The Story Behind ‘The Godfather of Fentanyl,’
award-winning author and former undercover agent for the Oklahoma
Bureau of Narcotics John Madinger, tells the remarkable story of
DEA’s three-year pursuit, the genesis of our fentanyl problem
today, and the uniquely dangerous evil genius he spent hundreds of
hours interviewing.

Become a supporter of this podcast:
https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.