“Synthetic opiates, 500 times more powerful than heroin” are circulating in Reunion. They have caused the death of three people and the hospitalization of six others since June. What happened ? Why does this cause so much concern? 20 minutes takes stock for you.
What do the authorities say?
In mid-September, the health authorities of the French department, worried, communicated to warn about a substance which caused the death of three people. Six other people were hospitalized in intensive care. The first hospitalizations date from June and since then, 13 poisonings have been recorded in people aged 21 to 46, explains the Réunion Regional Health Agency in a press release.
What is this substance?
This odorless powder has not yet been formally identified. But the ARS writes that these are “synthetic opiates, 500 times more powerful than heroin”. The scenario is nightmarish: a few minutes or even seconds after taking the product, the victims suffer brutal asphyxiation. “An overdose can lead to death in the absence of rapid medical care,” insists the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Reunion Island.
Unfortunately, “it is very difficult to trace [de ces substances] in terms of analyses, because these products metabolize extremely quickly,” explains Dr. David Mété, head of the addictology department at Saint-Denis University Hospital to our colleagues at Parisian.
Why is it causing so much concern?
Not only is the product extremely dangerous, but this odorless powder can slip anywhere, even without the victims knowing. Several young people collapsed after taking a few puffs of cigarettes. “If you are a smoker, never accept a cigarette whose origin you do not know,” strongly advises the ARS press release, which emphasizes that these synthetic opiates “present a major risk of overdose.”
France is also concerned about the arrival on its territory of devastating synthetic drugs, like Fentanyl in the United States. Across the Atlantic, this drug killed one person every seven minutes on average in 2021, according to the Washington Post.