Colombia and Ecuador also traffic fentanyl, with dangerous cocktails

Fentanylthe powerful and cheap synthetic drug of opiate effects so widespread in countries such as the United States, has put the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil (southwest) on alert, which is beginning to see its effects while trying to combat the consumption of other drugs consumed in dangerous “cocktails.”

The arrival of four drug users at a municipal hospital with intense body pain and bulging, hunched, disoriented eyes who did not respond to treatments alerted the city’s health authorities about possible fentanyl consumption, 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine.

These patients, explains the Municipal Health Director, Juan Carlos González, to EFE, were consumers of “H”, a dangerous mixture of heroin with cement waste, rat poison and other substances, widely used in the city for its low cost (50 cents on the dollar) and high level of addiction, and which in 2016 triggered interventions in at least four neighborhoods overwhelmed by microtrafficking.

“The treatment becomes much more difficult because there are already several drugs that the patient has. If before the stay (in the hospital) was 10 or 12 days and they left detoxified, now it costs us 20 days or a little more, precisely because of the mixture of this type of substances,” says the specialist.

Production in Colombia and Ecuador

The United States detected that Colombia and Ecuador also participate in the production or trafficking of fentanyl, in addition to Mexico, the State Department’s anti-narcotics chief, Todd Robinson, explained this Tuesday.

”Mexico is the main port of entry but we know that there are other countries that participate in the supply chain, such as Colombia and Ecuador. There are also suppliers in Asia. There are several points that are affecting the United States,” she said.

The anti-narcotics chief stressed that the production chain of this powerful synthetic opioid that has caused thousands of deaths in the United States It begins in China, where chemicals used to make the drug are marketed.

These precursors reach America, mainly to Mexican cartels, which produce fentanyl and send it to US territory, he added.

Robinson gave these statements in New York, where he participated in an event of the global coalition against synthetic drugs organized by the United States on the margins of the UN General Assembly.

On the other hand, the anti-narcotics chief said that the United States is “analyzing” the new anti-drug plan presented by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who seeks to stop persecuting small coca leaf growers and attacking drug trafficking organizations.

The official said that the Colombian Government “has not ignored” crop eradications, despite the fact that plantations have reached record numbers, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

But he admitted that the United States and Colombia can still “do more” in terms of drug seizures.

”The Colombian Government wants to provide greater security to the citizens of rural areas of Colombia and we want to help in this,” said Robinson.

(Source EFE)