Prohibit the use of fentanyl could have negative consequences for patients who use it for medical purposes, mentions Camilo Ríos, a pharmacology specialist and professor at UAM-Xochimilco, who warned that possible substitutes for opioid could be more expensive, and that the measure cannot guarantee that the traffic of this medicine culminate.
On March 15, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador López indicated that the possibility of prohibiting the use of fentanyl in Mexico in order to stop the trafficking of this substance to the United States.
ANDl fentanyl It is a synthetic opioid up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, which is why it is used medically to combat intense pain, or symptoms associated with chronic diseases such as cancer, according to the Centers for Control and Disease Prevention (CDC).
However, its use is beginning to be questioned in a context where 100,000 people die each year from overdose in the United States, President Joe Biden pointed out in a conference a few weeks ago.
It should be noted that between August 2021 and August 2022, 107,735 Americans died from drug poisoning in the United States, of which 66% correspond to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, the CDC mentions.
Two types of fentanyl
They warn about the risk of criminalizing fentanyl, it can affect its medical use. Photo: Darkroom
The Department of Health and Human Services of the United States pointed out that there are two forms of use for fentanyl, the first that is prescribed by a doctor for intense pain in an injectable form and the use of the opioid in an illicit way, that is, offered in the illegal market made in clandestine laboratories.
The opioid for non-medical use has become very famous for its effects very similar to those of heroin, among which euphoria, drowsiness, nausea, confusion, constipation, sedation, tolerance stand out, and in negative cases, addiction, depression, respiratory arrest, unconsciousness, coma and even death. mention the same organism.
Non-pharmaceutical fentanyl is sold as a powder, added to blotting paper, mixed with or substituted for heroin, or as tablets that mimic other, less potent opioids, making people more vulnerable to overdoses. because its form of consumption makes people more vulnerable to overdose, because if a person who uses drugs does not know how to consume amounts in powder or a pill, they can suffer irreparable damage.
In the United States, two-thirds of fatal overdoses involve the use of synthetic opioids. However, the UNAM professor mentioned that in the Mexican case the distribution and application of the substance for medical use is controlled, since it is only available by prescription and is not administered for very long periods of time.
The president of the Mexican Association for the Study and Treatment of Pain, Margarita Araujo, also mentioned during a conference that the prescriptions issued for the use of fentanyl in Mexico are distributed very carefully, since it is only prescribed to some patients with specific types of cancer, because morphine is the other type of analgesic that is most prescribed.
He also mentioned that if the use of fentanyl is prohibited in Mexico, it would be possible that patients who require its use are forced to buy it in black markets or from vendors who offer it illegally, risking the health of patients, since shares that many of the illegal sellers can combine fentanyl with other, more dangerous substances.
More research to make decisions
They warn about the risk of criminalizing fentanyl, it can affect its medical use. Photo: Darkroom
Margarita Araujo explains that the use of fentanyl It has been used in Mexico for almost 50 years, so anyone who has been in an operating room in the last 40 years has most likely been administered this substance for pain caused by surgeries, which is why he mentions reinforcing strategies for illegal use. of fentanyl.
For his part, the pharmacology expert pointed out that attention should be paid to imports of chemical substances that can be used for the preparation of fentanyl in a homemade way so that they are not diverted for their illegal sale, in addition to taking care that the existing imports of the drug reach where they need to go, that is, for medical use.
The specialist also mentioned that it is important that research continues to help find alternatives for the development of other drugs or substances that have the same effect as el fentanylbecause if its medical use is prohibited, this does not necessarily translate into a drop in deaths if it continues to be manufactured illegally.
The specialists point out that the issue should not be left aside and continue taking strategies as well as continue investigating, because according to data collected by the president of the Alliance of Rehabilitation Centers in Tijuana, José Luis Serrano, the overdose for fentanyl use end the lives of at least two people every day, and considered that fentanyl is a drug that is causing a lot of damage by showing its great lethality, especially in people addicted to strong drugs.
United States authorities, for their part, mentioned that they will continue to take measures to combat the damage of the drug in their territory, one of the latest efforts, to sanction the drug trafficker José Ángel Rivera Zazueta, based in Mexico, and his two partners for acquiring substances for the elaboration of fentanyl and traffic it.
For his part, President López Obrador mentioned in a conference that in-depth scientific investigations will be carried out to measure the relevance of banning fentanyl in Mexico.
“So, although we have control, which we did not have before over the income of fentanyl for medical uses, in any case, since it is prohibited, there would no longer be any possibility that it could be imported and we replaced it with other analgesics; Let’s see if it’s viable, ”he declared.
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