Fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that has caused a wave of overdose deaths in the United States in recent years, is also produced in Europe, where it risks causing thousands of deaths. The warning was made by European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson. Johansson reminded that the problem is mainly in America, with more than 100 thousand deaths in the country, but added that we should not forget that fentanyl “is produced even here in Europe.” There are many “illegal” laboratories, and within a year “police dismantled 400 of them; fentanyl is mostly produced in them, as well as methamphetamines”.
Speaking at a press conference held yesterday in Brussels at the end of the Internal Affairs Council, which was attended by ministers from 14 Latin American countries and focused mainly on the fight against drug trafficking, Johansson said, “We must be.” We were prepared for the fact that an emergency similar to the one in the United States “could happen here, too.” The Commissioner gave an example of a kidnapping incident in Latvia. “5 kilograms of fentanyl were seized there, which has the potential to kill 2.5 million people, more than the national population,” he condemned.
Because this substance, originally used as an analgesic, is now used mainly as a narcotic, before being made illegal due to the side effects shown and reported, and is “fifty times more dangerous than heroin”, i.e. “fifty times more dangerous than heroin”. They would like 250 kilos of heroin to potentially pose the same danger, but five kilos is “easy to carry”, can easily be put in a bag, so poses greater risks to public health.
Yesterday, during a televised debate between Republican candidates in the US presidential primaries, former governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, denounced, “We have had more fentanyl deaths than Americans killed in Iraq, Vietnam and Afghanistan combined.” And this statement is true: According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 150 thousand people have died due to overdoses of psychotropic drugs, including fentanyl, the most common drug. 65,114 American soldiers died in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. In the United States, this drug, which can be injected or smoked, is becoming the leading cause of death in people ages 18 to 49.
To address the opioid shortage, organized crime is increasingly devoting itself to the production and sale of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl, which are more profitable than other natural opioids because they are more potent: thus less product is needed to provide the same effect. Drug dealers often mix these analgesics with other drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamines and MDMA. Therefore, addiction can occur unconsciously, without consumers being aware that they are using this type of substance.
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Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
