The synthetic drug Fentanuyl, also called “zombie drug”, is already a social problem in the United States, while in Italy it remains a special observation for now. “We were the first nation in Europe to launch the alarm about this synthetic drug” said the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci, on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Race for the cure Health Village at the Circus Maximus in Rome, answering journalists’ questions on today’s meeting at Palazzo Chigi dedicated to the update on the national plan against the improper use of Fentanyl. “We have put in place an accurate plan thanks to the direction of Undersecretary Mantovano. I think it’s very important to be ready for possible increases in the diffusion of this synthetic drug which in the USA is a social problem. We have put in place a network between many ministries and we are ready to intervene even if I hope that the spread that occurred in the USA will not happen.”
Mantovano: “Watch out for the web and Chinese sites, it comes from there”
“Today we carried out an initial check of the work carried out to date, as we do for the main dossiers”, so that it is not an “initial spot”, checks must be carried out during the work. The greater attention is bringing out a phenomenon That in Italy it does not have the consistency and devastating effects that it has in other parts of the world, but which still exists here too“. Thus the undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council Alfredo Mantovano, during a press conference on the update of the activities envisaged by the national prevention plan against the improper use of Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids at Palazzo Chigi, recalling the cases of Perugia, Piacenza and Gioia Tauro. “The commitment that the Italian government is putting on the table unfolds on various levels, starting with the international one”, says Mantovano, passing the floor to the Minister for Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani.
“From a web monitoring” it emerged that Fentanyl is mostly ‘peddled’ via the internet, “especially on Chinese sites, with delivery by post and payment with cryptocurrencies” to make them “untraceable. This should make everyone – parents, women, families – more attentive, so that adolescents avoid using these sites, taking into account that this diffusion can occur either with actual prescriptions or as drugs or with disguised “operations”, we have for example discoveries that Fentanyl is hidden behind the wording ‘chinewhite’.”
“We are dealing with Fentanyl because it has devastating effects, but the Department for Addiction deals with the fight against addictions on a broad spectrum. Starting from June 10th, commercials will be broadcast which will describe the real effects of cannabis, heroin, cocaine, drugs synthetic”.
Mantovano further explained that “the secret services” are also monitoring the case, employed above all “on monitoring” the Internet but also on “financial flows”.
Toxicologist: “One death from Fentanyl in Italy, but present in 4 autopsies”
“For cases of acute lethal intoxication, therefore in cases of autopsies, for the 2023 data only 4 cases emerged in which Fentanyl was also present, only in one case was it the main cause of death”. Sabrina Rossi Strano, president of the forensic toxicologists, explained this during a press conference on the update of the activities envisaged by the national prevention plan against the improper use of Fentanyl.
