Dangerous fentanyl could replace heroin in Switzerland – News

Basel will counteract this and expand drug monitoring to include synthetic opioids. To do this, the canton will work with addicts, the police and drug checking.

The images coming from the USA are also shocking in Europe: hundreds of people sitting or lying on the ground or standing hunched over. They are drug addicts in a district of Philadelphia. It is often described as the world’s largest drug trafficking hub. Most addicts consume fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a synthetic drug. It is more effective and cheaper than heroin – and correspondingly dangerous. In the USA, it is now the number one cause of death among 18- to 49-year-olds.

If heroin addicts do not know that their drug is laced with fentanyl, consumption could be fatal for them.

Regine Steinauer, head of the addiction department in the Basel administration, fears that fentanyl could also cause a lot of suffering in Switzerland. Addicts who consume heroin are particularly at risk. Fentanyl can be added to heroin – even without the addicts knowing it.

“Heroin users usually know how much of the drug they can tolerate,” says Steinauer. “But if they don’t know that their drug has been laced with fentanyl, consumption could be fatal for them.”

Substitute for heroin

Heroin has recently been appearing more frequently in Switzerland; in Basel and Zurich. There is also a problem from the addicts’ point of view: Afghanistan is the main growing country for opium poppies, from which heroin is made. However, cultivation has been banned there since 2022. That’s why there is less heroin on the market. And fentanyl is also used in the USA to cut heroin.

In Basel, they will find out how often fentanyl is consumed in Switzerland. “We know of isolated cases in Zurich,” says Regine Steinauer. “That’s why we in Basel are now looking much more closely at what the addicts are consuming.” To do this, they are working with the development of institutions, the police and, last but not least, the addicts.

Isolated cases or trend?

“We want to collect information about individual cases, if there are any in Basel,” explains Steinauer. “This will give us an overview of whether it is really just an isolated case or whether there is a trend.”

In order to set up this monitoring, the canton will work with various organizations and bodies. For example, with “Drug Checking”. People bring their drugs in to test what substances they contain and whether the drugs are contaminated. “The observations from drug checking are valuable to us,” says Steinauer. The same goes for information from addicts or the police. “The police confiscate drugs and we can then examine them.”

With the monitoring, Basel-Stadt will prevent a crisis like the one in the USA from developing. If fentanyl or other synthetic opioids appear on Basel’s streets, the canton will take action. “We are currently working on a catalogue of measures,” says Steinauer. “In addition to treating addicts, this also includes raising awareness among professionals.”