2024-02-10 16:31:00
“Imminent threat” Interpol warns of fentanyl spread in Europe
Feb 10, 2024, 5:31 p.m. Listen to article
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The painkiller fentanyl is causing many deaths, especially in North America. Because of its potency, the drug is extremely dangerous. According to Interpol, it is now also being sold in Europe. However, the federal government’s drug commissioner is not assuming an opioid crisis like the one in the USA.
Interpol fears an increase in drug consumption of the dangerous opioid fentanyl in Europe. “The fact is that fentanyl is already in Europe, is extremely potent and must be treated as an immediate threat,” Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock told “Welt am Sonntag”. “Even small amounts of this drug can be deadly for users, but at the same time very profitable for the criminal networks behind its distribution,” he warned.
Interpol recently conducted the first global law enforcement survey on fentanyl. Initial findings showed that the drug and similar substances “are distributed or manufactured in all regions of the world, including Europe.” These included illicit and medicinal fentanyl in the form of powder, patches, tablets and liquids.
Even though the current seizures in Europe are “nowhere near” the quantities in North America, they should “cause concern among law enforcement and health authorities due to the high addictive potential,” Stock said.
Fentanyl is a strong painkiller that is used, among other things, by cancer patients, but is also traded illegally. The synthetic opioid is 50 times more potent than heroin. With chemicals manufactured primarily in China, it is often produced in Mexico and smuggled from there to the USA. In the United States, approximately 100,000 people die from a fentanyl overdose every year.
More caution in Germany
The federal government’s drug commissioner, Burkhard Blienert, told “Welt am Sonntag”: “An opioid crisis like the one in the USA and Canada will not repeat itself here; we fundamentally have different, better conditions.” The starting point of the fentanyl crisis in the USA was an excessive prescription of strong painkillers; in Germany people are much more cautious.
“Nevertheless, it would also be possible for us that heroin users would increasingly switch to cheaper and much more dangerous fentanyl,” said Blienert. More low-threshold offers for consumers are needed. “These include drug checking, rapid tests in drug consumption rooms and also the use of the emergency medication naloxone, which even medical laypeople can administer,” said the drug commissioner.
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