A powerful painkiller up to 100 times more potent than morphine has been linked to several overdoses and four people dying this month in Northern California.
Shasta County authorities believe the drug fentanyl led to the deaths of three men whose bodies were found Monday at a Redding residence.
Less than two weeks earlier, a rash of overdoses and one death were reported in Lake County where a test of the capsules also pointed to the synthetic opioid.
Fentanyl is legally prescribed for pain relief, often for cancer patients, but the substance is also sought by drug users on the black market. Its illegal use has been documented as part of the nationwide opioid crisis, but quantities of it are showing up in the North State and it s a rising cause of death in Shasta County.