2023-09-15 14:04:57
“We know that the drugs have arrived on French territory. For the moment, we are not yet suffering from overdose deaths” : columnist Valérie Benaïm said on Tuesday September 12 in the show “Touche pas à mon poste!” » (“TPMP”), that the “zombie drug” was present on French territory. Also called “tranq”, xylazine is an animal anesthetic that can be mixed with fentanyl (a synthetic drug created to relieve cancer patients) and which is wreaking havoc in North America. This information is false and had already been verified by several media: nothing to report, for the moment, in France.
Videos showing drunk or disabled people
Before being taken up and commented on on Cyril Hanouna’s show, this false information had been broadcast the day before by the X account (formerly Twitter) “Cerfia”. This profile, with more than 700,000 subscribers on the social network, stated that “ several cases resembling “zombie drugs” [avaient] been recorded in Rouen in recent days “. In addition to this publication, subsequently deleted, the page had associated two videos of people presented as “tranq” consumers around Rouen.
France 3 Normandy and Release, in particular, verified the origin of these two sequences. For the first video, where we see a woman walking with difficulty towards a man, the traders of Darnétal (Seine-Maritime) confirmed that the two people were disabled. For the second video, the author of the images explained that the two men slumped on public transport in Rouen were intoxicated.
This false information was not only taken up by “TPMP”, “Cerfia” and other X or Snapchat accounts. The president of the Republicans, Eric Ciotti, also stepped into the breach. “More and more evidence is emerging of the active circulation in our country of substances causing effects similar to the “zombie drug”. Images circulating on networks seeming to attest to this consumption in several cities,” worried the deputy for Alpes-Maritimes in a letter to the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne. He asked him “to initiate negotiations on behalf of France at European level in order to classify xylazine among the substances classified under the control of drug precursors ».
Denial from the prefecture, investigation by Arcom
The prefect of Normandy and Seine-Maritime published a message on X to deny the video. “When faced with an account that publishes sensational content and of which he is not the author, be careful. Do not share unverified information. »
The Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Acom) was contacted, according to Releasepour “instruct the sequence” problem which took place on Cyril Hanouna’s set. The host apologized, in his broadcast on September 13, to the city of Rouen and the people present in the videos, but maintained that the information broadcast was not « une “fake news” ». The C8 channel has already been fined 500,000 euros in July for having broadcast a sequence in March on adrenochrome, an alleged drug made from children’s blood, still on “TPMP”.
No cases recorded in France
Addictologist Amine Benyamina carefully followed this media sequence which caused a lot of discussion. He confirms Monde that no user of the “zombie drug” has to date been detected in France. “As president of the French Federation of Addictology, I would surely have heard if there were anyassures the professor at the Paul-Brousse hospital in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne). We have still not had to take care of people who consume this type of product in France. » Comments confirmed by the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Tendencies, which deplores the use of the phrase “zombie drug”, judging it « stigmatisante. »
The effects of respiratory depression, skin necrosis, drop in blood pressure and drop in body temperature – characteristics of taking “tranq” – lead to “often to death”, deplores Professor Benyamina. In the United States, the number of fatal overdoses linked to this product increased thirteenfold between 2018 and 2022, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This ” growing public health problem”, targeted by the American Medicines Agency, is trying to be contained by the country which, since February, has more drastically controlled the importation of xylazine. Canada is also concerned regarding the growing consumption of this product, a hundred times more powerful than morphine and fifty times more than heroin.
If no cases have yet been reported in France, Professor Benyamina remains vigilant. “Everything that happens in other countries interests us. We are in a globalized world where everything can circulate. Trends that start in one country can come to France. These are products that may one day end up arriving. »
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