Banning fentanyl will create black market, warning

In recent days, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador requested the support of Mexican doctors and scientists to analyze the proposal to replace fentanyl with other analgesics.

As stated by the president during his morning press conference, the initiative will seek to prohibit the importation of the opioid into Mexico. He also added that, if found viable, he will ask the United States to do the same.

Alejandro Hope, security analyst and columnist, who expressed his position on fentanyl for medical use.

López Obrador informed that, although today fentanyl is used to treat pain from terminal illnesses or painful operations, other analgesics were previously used, so banning the opioid reduces the likelihood of importing it.

In view of this, Hope expressed: “it may generate a second black market now for medical uses”, that is to say, they will seek to produce and import the opioid illegally. However, this would not be the only consequence, the specialist explained that there is also the risk that “the sources of supply will evolve”.

“What happened with ephedrine at the time (…) ephedrine was used to try to avoid the production of methamphetamines and the only thing that was achieved was that there was a technological evolution and methamphetamine started to be produced by other methods”, he pointed out.

If the project is approved, patients would be the main affected. According to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, fentanyl as a drug is prescribed to people with severe pain.

But what actions could the health sector take in the event of restricting the use of the opioid? Hope argued that the most effective way to act is through legal means: “with injunctions, both by the pharmaceutical industry and by doctors,” he added.

TYT Newsroom