MEDICAL ANIMATION TRANSCRIPT: Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid drug. The pharmaceutical form is prescribed to treat severe pain, usually from cancer or after surgery. There’s also an illicit form that’s made and sold illegally on the drug market. People take it because it produces a strong “high” and intense feelings of well-being. It’s potency, or strength, is up to fifty times that of heroin, an illegal opioid, and one hundred times that of morphine, another opioid used to treat severe pain. As with any opioid, fentanyl addiction is a brain disease where you have an overwhelming craving for the drug. You can’t stop taking the drug despite the harm it may cause you. If you’re addicted and stop taking the drug, you can feel sick. This sickness is called withdrawal. An important treatment for addiction to opioids, such as fentanyl, is called medication-assisted treatment, or “MAT.” MAT is a “whole patient” approach that combines medication to help you stop using opioids, with counseling a...