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Fentanyl. it's such a tiny amount that we have seen people go out. >> when you say go out? >> overdose. >> reporter: the reason? fentanyl is faster acting and more powerful than heroin. and not just a little bit. up to 50 times more potent. and because it is significantly cheap tore produce, it is an attractive cutting agent. that means dealers will mix it in, giving a small amount of heroin a bigger punch, juicing up fake prescription pills. nowadays fentanyl is mixed with just about any drug. problem is this, if someone isn't expecting fentanyl, they can easily overdose. >> it is instant. i ...

And because it's significantly cheaper to produce, it's an attractive cutting agent. that means dealers will mix it in, giving a small amount of heroin a bigger punch. juicing up fake prescription pills. nowadays, fentanyl is mixed with just about any drug. the problem is this, if someone isn't expecting fentanyl, they can easily overdose. >> but it's instant. i mean, as soon as they hit, most of the time the rig is still in their arm, if not, you know, they're tied off or something. it happens fast. >> reporter: from alive to dead within seconds. louise vincent has heard too many of these sto...

A typical legal thc cartridge would have 70% to 90% pure thc and the rest aromatic oils that give it a flavor. in illicit you have the following and vitamin e acetate which is a near cutting agent because it looks very much like the actual product. the same color and the same thickness. it would also pass something known on the street as the bubble test. basically, if the bubble moves slowly, that should mean that it's viscus enough to be pure thc oil. when you look at any of these things, you super heat it and breathe it into the lungs, do we know what those molecules then do to the body? >> ...

Vaping is an emergency. young people are becoming critically ill and die. >> reporter: a cutting agent vitamin e acetate. how would you describe vaping in your school? >> it got kind of bad last year. some people did it too much. like a lot too much. and it escalated i think. >> reporter: the cdc says more than 6 million middle and high school students used a tobacco product this year. that's up from 4.9 million last year. and e-cigarettes were found to be the most common. while many organizations are pushing for a full-on ban now of flavored e-cigarettes, there are worries that a ban would hu...

Does it start to lead you to some sort of conclusion? >> yes, i think that it leads us to really that, there is something going on either in the police it m illicit market and also the average consumer not wanting to pay more, so they look at that i can buy this for $40 or go to a legal store and buy it for 6 o$. and they keep the price down by cuttings product. let me show you what that means. a typical legal thc cartridge would have 70% to 90% pure thc, the rest is the oils that give it flavor. illegally kit cartridges, maybe only 40% to 50%, and the rest is a cutting agent like vitamin e ...