Fentanyl is actually a painkiller, but it has now appeared in heroin mixtures in Germany.
Fentanyl is also abused as a drug in Germany
Fentanyl relieves pain. However, if overdosed, the opioid can quickly lead to death. It is all the more fatal that fentanyl is now often mixed with heroin in order to dilute the drug.
- There has been an opioid crisis in the USA for a long time. Now fentanyl has also become a real threat in Germany. The substance was detected in autopsies of drug deaths. According to deuschlandfunk.de, 54 people in this country died from fentanyl in 2023.
- The synthetic opioid is actually used in medicine to relieve severe pain in cancer patients. It can quickly become addictive.
- In 2022, the cultivation of opium poppies was banned in Afghanistan. However, opium is extracted from this and heroin is made from it. There was a heroin shortage on the world market.
- On the black market, fentanyl is increasingly being added to heroin because it is cheap to produce. The basic ingredients can be ordered online, and sometimes the opioid as a whole is even smuggled by post.
- Even small amounts of fentanyl are enough to have an effect. But just two milligrams of the opioid can cause a person's death.
- It becomes particularly dangerous when drug users do not know that fentanyl has been added to the heroin. However, there is no need to fear a crisis as big as in the USA in this country, as the opioid is not simply prescribed for pain like in America.