This drug, which is very easy to hide in a glass, has arrived in France. It remains unknown or almost unknown, but we know that it is much more concentrated than opium.
The public authorities are warning about the identification of a synthetic drug, which is not classified among the drugs already known, and which is already causing damage on French soil, in Reunion. New trafficking is suspected, but for the moment, it is experts in illicit substances who are alerting the population.
These experts have already analyzed the product, which is said to be “a synthetic opiate”, more precisely a substance close to morphine, derived from opium, but “1000 times more powerful” than it and “500 times more powerful than morphine”. ‘heroin’, according to David Mété, head of the addiction department at La Réunion University Hospital. It is on this island and French department that the unknown drug takes its first toll.
The ARS of Reunion has also alerted and invited consumers of illicit substances and cigarette smokers to exercise the greatest caution: “Avoid accepting any type of substances that are not controlled or known, in particular cigarettes “. Even people who are not in the habit of consuming psychotropic drugs are called upon to be vigilant. This synthetic drug can in fact take many forms and can be “found in all types of media, in cigarettes or in a glass, in powder”. Professor David Mété insists to local media Zinfos974: “All possible consumption routes are possible.”
This very powerful drug is above all very dangerous since it can lead to the death of the user in just a few minutes. The consumer’s reaction to taking this synthetic opiate depends on how the product is assimilated. “If [the drug] is ingested, it will last at least half an hour or an hour. If it is an inhaled, snorted or injected product, the effects can occur within seconds,” explains the specialist.
These serious effects require “immediate and urgent” care for the consumer, according to the deputy director of the Reunion ARS, Nicolas Thévenet. Although opiates may have been consumed in the past, this is a “new phenomenon” with an unknown but much more dangerous drug.
Health authorities do not yet know if dealers are trying to install this new product or if it is a wave of consumption caused by an “order error”. The situation is being monitored very closely.
