When we think of the dangers of drug addiction, we don’t have to look too far to find real-life examples. Some of these examples are famous. Sadly, they seem to serve as cautionary tales of the dangers of heroin, fentanyl, and other drugs.

For example, in November, 2017, the music artist Lil Peep died of an accidental overdose to Xanax and fentanyl. Born Gustav Ahr, Lil Peep was a hip hop and emo performer known for his work in the style of music known as cloud rap. He was also known for honestly talking about his personal life, including frank discussions of his sexuality, drug use, and struggles with depression.

In some ways, his death might be surprising. He died partly due to an overdose from fentanyl, a drug that illegal drug makers sometimes add to other drugs. Lil Peep’s brother and some of his fans suspect that Lil Peep didn’t know that the drugs he was using included fentanyl, which is a drug similar to morphine and heroin but many times more powerful. Many people compare heroin vs fentanyl, but regardless of which one is more powerful, both are deadly.

Fentanyl overdoses caused or contributed to the deaths of other famous musicians, including Prince and Tom Petty. Fentanyl and other similar drugs known as opioids or opiates also contribute to the deaths of thousands of other people every year.

Although we don’t know all of the details surrounding Prince’s opioid use and his death, it appears that both conform to opioid use and opioid-related deaths in others.

Prince suffered from hip pain, possibly due in part to his energetic concert performances and flamboyant stage attire, which included jumping and wearing high-heeled footwear. He was also in his fifties, an age where some people feel aches and pains related to arthritis and other conditions.

Less than one week before his 2016 death, Prince suffered an overdose on the way home from a concert, prompting his plane to make an emergency landing. He was apparently supposed to meet with an addiction specialist but died before this meeting took place.

It appears that investigators were not able to find a prescription for the fentanyl that killed Prince, so it appears that the singer and musician acquired this fentanyl illegally.

Legal and Illegal Uses of Opioids

Beginning in the 1990s, doctors across the United States increasingly prescribed opioids such as fentanyl to treat the chronic pain of their patients. But, prescriptions expire. People might use all of their prescription, become dependent on the prescription opioid, and crave more.

These dependencies and cravings could prompt people to return to their doctors, but doctors usually register prescriptions for opioid painkilling drugs on government databases. These databases list which opioids people use, how many of them they use, and when they use them. To circumvent these databases and government oversight, people might visit multiple doctors to acquire drugs, a practice known as doctor shopping.

Or, to avoid doctors altogether, people might buy opioids from drug dealers on the black market. Not surprisingly, given the demand for the drugs, dealers might charge high prices for the opioids. Also not surprisingly, this process is dangerous. Buyers are engaging in criminal activity. Buyers also don’t know what they’re buying exactly.

It’s easy to misuse fentanyl accidentally. Not only do drug makers add it to other drugs, but they also sell it disguised to look like other drugs, such as oxycodone (OxyContin). One wonders if Lil Peep died because he was using such unknown substances.

Fentanyl and other prescription drugs also appear to be gateway drugs. When prescriptions run out, people who don’t want to doctor shop or buy fentanyl from the black market sometimes take another approach: they begin using heroin.

Discussing both drugs isn’t a question of heroin vs fentanyl, because both drugs are similar. Heroin and fentanyl both produce similar effects on the body and can ease pain. They can both create euphoria and get people high. But there are striking differences between the two drugs.

Fentanyl requires doctors’ prescriptions. It is difficult to obtain legally because state laws and databases regulate how people distribute it. It can also be expensive, especially if people don’t have health insurance.

Heroin is less expensive. It’s easier to obtain, as high numbers of heroin addicts in every region of the United States prove. Even though it’s illegal and deadly, some people see buying and using heroin as viable options to feed their drug abuse.

Lil Peep admittedly struggled with drug abuse, something that can kill people unless they find effective help. It sounds as if people who knew Lil Peep were afraid that his addiction and other problems would kill him. After he learned of his client’s death, his manager Chase Ortega tweeted that “I’ve been expecting this call for a year.”

It seems, then, that Lil Peep and Prince’s stories and other accounts of heroin vs fentanyl all illustrate that addiction poses both known and unknown dangers.