As of: February 20, 2024, 9:20 a.m
By: Lukas Schierlinger
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The State Criminal Police Office is alerted after a drug discovery in Munich.
An expert from the Klinikum Rechts der Isar reveals what makes carfentanyl so dangerous.
Munich – The news from the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (LKA) made people sit up and take notice.
During a check on two people in a Munich park in December 2023, a substance was discovered that “was apparently heroin.”
An investigation revealed that the drug contained carfentanyl.
Some experts call the derivative the “deadliest drug in the world.”
He wants to remain cautious with such categorizations, explains Dr.
Florian Eyer, Chief Physician of the Department of Clinical Toxicology and Munich Poison Emergency Center at the Rechts der Isar University Hospital, at the request of our editorial team.
His area of expertise includes acute poisonings of all levels of severity as well as addiction patients with substance-related dependencies.
Expert from Munich after carfentanyl discovery: “Consumers are often not aware of the danger”
Due to its extremely strong effects, carfentanyl is taboo in human medicine.
It is used in the form of injections to anesthetize elephants and rhinos.
In the event of an overdose, consumers must expect life-threatening side effects - including respiratory arrest.
“The pain-relieving and at the same time euphoric effect sets in quickly, but the predominant form of intravenous consumption is associated with a significant health risk due to the extremely high potency of the active ingredient,” warns the LKA in a press release.
Carfentanyl is 7,500 times more potent than morphine.
Press release from the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office
“We know fentanyl from anesthesia medicine,” explains chief physician Eyer from the right of the Isar.
“It has a much stronger respiratory suppressant effect than morphine.
Carfentanyl is now another 'further development'.
Consumers are often unaware of the danger.
If you use the known dose of fentanyl, taking carfentanyl can lead to death.”
No carfentanyl users have been treated in Munich so far
The spread of fentanyl has led to a massive opioid crisis in the United States.
The synthetic drug is also responsible for numerous deaths in Germany.
According to the Federal Criminal Police Office, 88 people died as a result of fentanyl poisoning in 2022, 33 of them in Bavaria.
Dr.
Florian Eyer, Chief Physician in the Department of Clinical Toxicology & Poison Emergency Center in Munich at the Rechts der Isar Clinic.
© TU Munich/Andreas Heddergott
The circulation of carfentanyl was first registered in Germany in 2016, according to Bavaria's State Criminal Police Office.
“So far we have not knowingly treated any carfentanyl user in Munich,” says Eyer, reporting on his experiences in everyday hospital life.
“We carry out our own analyses.
But we deal with fentanyl users relatively often.”
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Difficult to distinguish carfentanyl from fentanyl: “This would be possible through drug checking”
Carfentanyl is often used to cut heroin.
“Consumers don’t buy the substance intentionally.
Fentanyl and its derivative carfentanyl are cheaper to produce than heroin.
It stretches the heroin and increases the addictive potential.
It’s about manufacturing costs and customer dependency,” says Florian Hirschauer from the Munich police.
Consumers actually have no way of distinguishing carfentanyl from fentanyl, explains chief physician Eyer at the Rechts der Isar Clinic.
“This would be possible through drug checking in qualified laboratories.
But of course it takes time until a result is available.”