Synthetic Opioids Might Flood Europe

What is the Deadly Danger of This New Drug?

Synthetic opioids have caused a major public health crisis in North America, prompting growing concern in Europe that they could play a larger role in future drug-related harm. This concern is driven less by fentanyl, which has been central to the North American experience but does not currently feature prominently in Europe. Instead, it reflects recent outbreaks of overdose and death in a growing number of European countries linked to highly potent benzimidazole (‘nitazene’) opioids. It also relates to a longer-established but evolving problem associated with synthetic opioids.

Paul Griffiths, director of the National Drug Research Institute, examines this situation in his analytical article.

The emergence of this novel class of highly potent opioids coincides with speculation about potential disruptions to heroin supply in Europe, raising the possibility of increased demand for synthetic substitutes, he says.

In overall terms, heroin likely remains the substance most frequently associated with fatal opioid overdose, although it is rarely reported in isolation. However, examination of national data indicates that methadone and other synthetic opioids used in opioid agonist treatment are now as commonly – and in many countries more commonly – implicated in drug related deaths as heroin.

Available data suggest that Europe still faces residual challenges in responding to heroin-related problems and in more effectively addressing the diversion of opioids intended for therapeutic use.

Experts say that synthetic opioid production may soon begin in Europe. There are relatively low barriers to manufacturing these substances, particularly given the continent’s established capacity to produce a wide range of synthetic drugs for both domestic consumption and export. While synthetic opioid production has occasionally occurred in Europe, it has not become a major component of the overall supply of synthetic opioids to date. Nonetheless, increased demand could plausibly lead to growth in domestic production – as confirmed by several recent detections of production sites in Europe.

Since there is a real threat of increased synthetic opioid use in Europe, with potentially significant impacts, it is prudent to prepare for such an eventuality right now. Beyond this, highly potent synthetic opioids are now being found on the European market in individual cases. The risk of organized crime groups getting incentives to begin supplying synthetic opioids to the illicit market is rather high.

The profitability of producing synthetic drugs close to consumer markets, using a wide range of precursor chemicals and synthesis routes, mean that they are likely to play an increasingly prominent role in global drug problems. Accordingly, harms associated with synthetic opioids will only grow in Europe. Based on the current drug situation, a stronger case can be made that other synthetic drugs, particularly stimulants, are almost sure to drive increases in drug-related harm in Europe in the short run already. There will certainly be no rosy future, as the drug situation will only worsen.