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It is called “the zombie drug” due to its ability to transform those who take it into “the walking dead”. The state of euphoria is what drives the use of fentanyl, drug used in pain therapy, up to a hundred times more powerful than morphine. In Italy, assures the undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Alfredo Mantovano, “there is not yet a fentanyl emergency, but there are signs of its circulation”. And it is a market that develops and lives above all in the deep and dark web and which is starting to tempt the mafias.
What is fentanyl, the drug that is devastating the USA
Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid with analgesic and anesthetic uses. As an analgesic it has similar effects to those of morphine, but is 50 to 100 times more potent than the latter and 30-50 times more potent than heroin. Like morphine, it is a drug typically used to treat severe pain, especially in surgery, traumatology and oncology. Furthermore, it is sometimes used to treat patients with chronic painful conditions, when resistant to other opioids. The state of euphoria is what drives the use of fentanyl, but it can have devastating effects on those who take it for purposes other than healthcare: in fact, just 2-3 milligrams of the substance are enough to kill a person by causing them to suffocate. Its spread has caused a real emergency in the United States with around 100 thousand deaths in 2022: the seizures of fentanyl and similar carried out by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have reached record levels for a total of over 6 tons in powder and 59, 6 million counterfeit tablets containing fentanyl (the quantities seized are equivalent to over 398 million lethal doses). However, the production of these molecules has also been reported in European territory by clandestine laboratories, in particular Portugal and England: in 2021, EU member states reported 137 deaths related to fentanyl.
The alert rises in Italy: the Government launches a plan
Now our Government is also preparing to face a possible spread of fentanyl in the country, even if in Italy «there is no emergency. But we need to be ready”, reiterated the undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council Alfredo Mantovano. «Our intelligence has reported an interest from the ‘ndrangheta» in fentanyl «even if they are testing the market to verify the convenience of its introduction on the market», explains Mantovano, recalling that, to date, only one operation needs to be reported in Italy, that of the financial police of Piacenza, called ‘Painkiller’, which led to the seizure of 100 thousand doses of fentanyl, with 7 arrests in Italy, 11 in America. At the same time, other investigations are underway, “which concern contacts with suppliers in China, but we are also talking from the point of view of investigations of a limited phenomenon”. To prevent it from becoming an emergency in Italy, as in the United States, the National Prevention Plan against the improper use of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids has been prepared, presented today at Palazzo Chigi. A plan that is applauded by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who underlines how it is “inspired” by the principle of prevention. «Italy, as you highlighted, is among the very first in Europe to adopt a comprehensive prevention plan against the improper use of fentanyl».
Monitoring of prescriptions and in pharmacies
Fentanyl can be accessed in pharmacies only through a medical prescription which can be used only once or on the deep and dark web, areas in which the Plan provides for strengthening. «NAS controls will also be strengthened, we are alerting Regions and pharmacies to pay maximum attention to avoid theft – said the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci – The planned activities, also with the contribution of AIFA, include two types of measures : prevention and contrast. The prevention measures will be focused on strengthening monitoring and control actions in the distribution and administration of fentanyl to avoid its use for non-health purposes.” The plan includes training courses for the health professionals involved, “aimed at recognizing fentanyl overdoses”, so as to allow “immediate administration of the antidote”. The Plan also provides for monitoring of shortages and timely supply of drugs that counteract the harmful effects of fentanyl, including Naloxone, as well as the purchase and provision of reagent substances to be used promptly on any patients who go to the Emergency room.
Attention is also growing in schools in the world of sport
Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara indicates a “devastating danger on the horizon” against which “we must raise a wall and the school is an extraordinary place of conflict”. Training courses will be organized for teachers: “In particular, in the curricula of new hires there will be specific training for teachers”. Mantovano also warns families above all of the risk of “bad teachers” given that in the USA “texts arrive from rappers and trappers with the wrong messages on Fentanyl which then reach teenagers without filters”. The Minister for Sport and Youth Andrea Abodi also asks to raise attention: «Fentanyl is a risk that has not yet arrived in our nation. But an integrated action is needed and sport can also make a contribution on the prevention side in the face of any demand that is a potential risk.”