Methadone clinics and injection centres 'needed to counter fentanyl threat'

Dr Austin O'Carroll: 'We have time to prepare for this and opportunity to reduce potential overdose deaths'. Picture: Moya Nolan

Ireland needs to prepare for the arrival of fentanyl which will be much harder to deal with than heroin, one of the country’s leading drug addiction experts has said.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.