A new health emergency in Europe? The fear exists and is represented by the fear of an epidemic caused this time not by a virus, but by a synthetic opioid, synthesized in Belgium almost 60 years ago: fentanyl. Its prescription was indicated for morphine-like effects in pain conditions associated with chronic diseases or surgery. Its distribution has turned into abuse in various clinical conditions and has become the object of illicit trafficking. It is available on the illegal market in several forms, including liquid and powder. It is associated with heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine.
It has 50 times the potency of heroin and 100 times that of morphine. This is why it is called the zombie drug, due to its ability to create walking deaths in those who abuse it. It can cause vomiting, constipation, sedation, drowsiness, confusion, respiratory depression and death.
Between the end of the last century and the beginning of 2020, the United States estimated more than one million overdose deaths, leading the media to talk about a silent human massacre. In 2021, around 140 overdose deaths were reported in the European Union.
The governments of the Old Continent fear a crisis similar to the American one.
Last March 12, the national prevention plan against the improper use of fentanyl was presented by the Undersecretary to the Prime Minister, Alfredo Mantovano, by the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, and by the Minister of Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditara. .
The fear is that the reduction in the supply of heroin from Afghanistan could push organized crime to create mixes with fentanyl more and more frequently or to completely replace heroin.
