DALTON, Ga. — Chances are if you aren’t a health care professional you haven’t heard of fentanyl, an artificial opioid used to treat pain in cancer patients and to sedate large animals such as elephants.

It’s 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says that overdose deaths from artificial opioids including fentanyl rose 72.2 percent in 2015, the latest year for which data are available.

“It’s a real epidemic,” said state Rep. Bruce Broadrick, R-Dalton. “It’s often mixed with heroin or cocaine and people don’t even know they are taking it.

Broadrick, a pharmacist, has introduced House Bill 231, which aims to curb artificial opioids such as fentanyl. The bill passed the state House of Representatives earlier this month and is now awaiting action in the state Senate.

“My bill provides for an annual drug update,” Broadrick said.

Broadrick says that under HB 231, if the state crime lab detects fentanyl or a fentanyl component in a drug it will automatically be placed on the state schedule of controlled substances, which regulates how they may be used.