I did not know this, but I am living in the center of a world crisis of biblical proportions. People around me are dying, and the numbers of deaths are large, in the thousands, and growing rapidly. Governments don’t seem to have an answer, and the crisis is spreading.

Have you heard of Fentanyl? It’s a prescription drug that you can buy cheaply and legally, in most places, and it’s an opioid like heroin and morphine. Drug dealers love this stuff. They add it to more expensive and illegal drugs to provoke more addiction in their customers. It grows their business and saves them money, and I live in western Canada, one of the most blighted regions. Who knew?

Fentanyl was developed in a lab in 1959, as a legitimate pharmaceutical. Carfentanil was developed soon after and used by veterinarians; as a sedative for elephants.

• Related: Carfentanil: Wikipedia

The potency of morphine is the control measure, and Fentanyl is fifty times more potent; and Carfentanil is 10,000 times more. That number is not a typo. Police officers are at risk from the dust when they make drug busts. The state of Nevada plans to use Fentanyl to execute criminals.

• Related: Execution in Nevada to use powerful opioid fentanyl: CNN

In 2002 a terrorist group seized a theater in Moscow, Russia, with 850 hostages. The Russian military pumped knock-out gas into the building and ended the siege, with the death of about 170 people. They won’t admit it now, but there are persistent rumours that the Russians used Fentanyl as the knock-out gas.

• Related: Moscow theater hostage crisis: Wikipedia

This drug is so powerful it can be used as a weapon of mass destruction, in a war; and we’re all in trouble if terrorists start using it.

I went to a bad high school with lots of drug problems, and one of my good friends damaged his brain on LSD. A friend from another place had a stroke from LSD use, in his early twenties. A respected co-worker died of lung cancer after recovering from meth addiction.

And I have been close to severe alcoholics, including some who got high from aerosol cans of Lysol. They sat in a circle on the ground, in the winter, and sipped from a nail hole.

All of this makes me sad, and now I won’t even drink a glass of wine or take aspirin. I have my personal PTSD, but I know that we are all about to face a monster that will make those memories fade. I predict that someone you know will die a horrible death from a fabricated designer drug like Fentanyl. Brace yourself.

Fentanyl is just the beginning. These new chemicals are not just drugs, they are recipes. If a scientist had not developed a new drug in 1959, I would not be writing this and the world would be a better place. Now scientists are more skilled, and they will find newer and more dangerous recipes, and criminals will sell them to us; or terrorists will use them on us. We can’t un-ring the bell, the milk will never go back in the bottle.

Our best scientific progress has brought us to this.

I remember my personal unhappiness when I was in high school. The weak drugs around me then wrecked my friends and I have no answer, even today. I can’t spout a preachy solution to addiction.

The Bible says we live by faith: “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

That neatly describes how I became a Christian back in high school. The push came from school, not from my parents or their church.

And I am sure that we are all about to be tested, even the atheists. Human progress and science are great things, but I know that people are corrupt. You may disagree, but watch for an ambulance in your neighborhood.

And I trust that God will give you peace if you have already been hurt by this monster.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)