Only a couple of months ago there was a report of the ‘Ndrangheta’s involvement even though circulation in Italy was considered low, but the case of Perugia – with Fentanyl used to cut heroin – opens up a new scenario. The drug, considered 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more powerful than heroin, is under surveillance […]
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Only a couple of months ago there was a report of the ‘Ndrangheta’s involvement even though circulation in Italy was considered low, but the case of Perugia – with Fentanyl used to cut heroin – opens up a new scenario. The drug, considered 100 times more powerful than morphine and 50 times more powerful than heroin, has been under surveillance since it triggered a national emergency in the US. To understand how the powerful synthetic opioid with narcotic analgesic properties (it is prescribed to terminal cancer patients, ed.) could have ended up in heroin, the prosecutor’s office of Perugia opened an investigation. The dose cut with the Fentanyit was recovered a few weeks ago in the area of the Umbrian capital. The investigation is against unknown persons and, as reported by Ansa, the crime is drug dealing. “I am worried about what is emerging and I want to try to understand if it is a sporadic event or if there are similar episodes,” said the chief prosecutor, Raffaele Cantone, in recent days immediately after the alarm was raised. Fentanyl was discovered in a random check carried out in recent weeks by the Perugia street unit. The quantity of the powerful analgesic found was minimal – according to the analyzes carried out by the Higher Institute of Health. Heroin was 50%, then there was also codeine (30%) and diazepam (15%) as well as 5% Fentanyl.
The national rapid alert system coordinated by the Department for Anti-Drug Policies has therefore been activated and a note has been sent from the Ministry of Health to the health departments of all the Regions to urge the structures dealing with addictions to “inform people who use substances of the very serious health risks“. The new national prevention plan against the improper use of Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids has therefore been put into motion which also includes sending an alert to all police forces and all administrations so that the monitoring network is strengthened. territorial and increased attention in all potentially exposed sectors.
Fentanyl “is not the so-called zombie drug” explains the Higher Institute of Health in an online close-up, in reference to the first case in Italy. What is certain is that it is approximately 100 times more powerful than morphine, but also approximately 100 times more toxic. Its analogues, more than 150 illicit analogues currently on the black market, are up to a thousand times more potent than morphine. In Italy, this synthetic opioid is used for permitted purposes and under medical supervision as a general anesthetic in major surgery operations and in palliative therapy for terminal cancer pain. In the drug market, however, it can be used as a cutting agent for heroin or even in place of heroin itself.
The ISS therefore clarifies the often used definition of ‘zombie drug’: “Neither heroin laced with Fentanyl nor Fentanyl alone is a ‘zombie drug’. This is defined as a preparation of heroin or fentanyl cut with xylazine, a veterinary anesthetic and muscle relaxant, currently used very little in Italy, but instead used by the illicit market to make a cut that gives more power to the preparation but costs less. Xylazine produces skin ulcers in the upper and lower limbs, especially where heroin street preparations are injected. These deep ulcerations make consumers zombies: hence the name used to define this drug”. At the moment in Italy there is a third degree alert (third degree alert): it is a communication of maximum urgency that is sent to all operators who deal with consumers of substances of abuse. The level 3 alert refers to substances that can cause severe poisoning or deaths, such as Fentanyl. Currently, in Italy there is a national alert plan on Fentanyl started on March 12th by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
