On the rise in Europe: “Zombie drug” is unsettling Berlin’s party scene – that’s how dangerous fentanyl is
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It is 50 times more powerful than heroin and is the leading cause of death in people under 50 in the United States. Now fentanyl has sent the Berlin party scene into turmoil. While the all-clear was given in the capital, experts say: The deadly drug is on the rise in Europe. Answers to the most important questions.
Breathe a sigh of relief in Berlin. A drug sample submitted to investigators from the Drugchecking Project turned out to be negative. “Unconfirmed suspicion of contamination with fentanyl,” it says on their website. The report about the possible contamination had previously made waves on the Reddit internet platform.
What remains is concern for many people. Images from the USA are burned in. There, fentanyl is a driver of the opioid crisis with tens of thousands of deaths every year. According to the US government, the drug is now the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 18 and 49 nationwide.
Why is fentanyl so dangerous?
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. These are highly potent drugs that are produced in the laboratory and are sometimes 50 to 100 times more effective than heroin. In addition to pain relief, depending on the dose, it leads to reduced perception, clouding of consciousness and even respiratory depression (= flattening or reduction in breathing) and comatose states. The name “zombie drug” comes from the effects of the drug on the user: a slumped posture and uncontrolled movements of the body.
According to the US anti-drug police DEA, just two milligrams of fentanyl – the small amount that fits on the tip of a pencil – is considered a potentially fatal dose.
What is fentanyl actually approved for?
Pharmaceutical fentanyl is approved for the treatment of severe pain, usually in advanced cancer. However, illegally produced fentanyl is sold in illegal drug markets for its heroin-like effects and is often mixed with heroin or other drugs such as cocaine or pressed into counterfeit prescription pills.
What is the situation in Germany and Europe?
Fentanyl is still a marginal phenomenon in Germany. But addiction experts fear that things won’t last much longer. In isolated cases, admixtures have already been detected in heroin samples. In Dublin, 54 drug emergencies involving synthetic opioids were reported within four days. The drug has also appeared in England and Wales.
“These reports suggest that synthetic opioids are on the rise in Europe,” warned the Federal Association of Acceptance, German Aids Aid and the Catholic University of North Rhine-Westphalia (katho) in a joint statement in November. In Germany too, the “number of drug emergencies could soon increase dramatically”.
Why are synthetic substances spreading so rapidly?
The background to the development is that the synthetic materials are cheap to produce. At the same time, the Taliban have banned poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and are burning poppy fields. This could further reduce the availability of natural raw materials for heroin production in Europe in the near future. Experts expect that this deficiency will increasingly be compensated for with synthetic opioids.
What has to happen now to stop dangerous developments?
In order to avoid deaths, an infrastructure for drug emergencies must be built. What is urgently needed, for example, are first aid training (use of the antidote naloxone) and rapid opioid testing centers, explain katho, the German Aids Aid organization and the Accept association in the statement.
They see cities and municipalities as having a duty, but also the federal and state governments. Because the options for protecting dependent people are far from exhausted. Deutsche Aidshilfe is calling for substitution therapy offerings to be further expanded. There must finally be drug consumption rooms in all federal states.
rfe/with dpa