Fentanyl addiction threatens France

Fentanyl addiction threatens France

December 8, 2024

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Much more powerful than heroin and much more addictive, this painkiller is the cause of more than 70% of overdoses in the United States, where it caused nearly 75,000 deaths in 2023. The discovery this year in Brittany of a vast traffic in falsified medical prescriptions worries the French health authorities.

Fentanyl

Faced with the increase dizzying number of deaths from fentanyl overdoses, the American authorities are funding research programs to fight this scourge (here a gathering organized by an association in Washington in September 2023).

ELIZABETH FRANTZ / REUTERS

This article is taken from the monthly Sciences et Avenir ndeg934, dated December 2024.

The year 2024 could mark a turning point for drug addiction in France. On June 13, the courts in Brittany uncovered the diversion of 2,300 boxes of fentanyl, thanks to hundreds of falsified or stolen medical prescriptions. A seizure that would have nothing to do with the news item: according to the French addictovigilance network, fentanyl has been one of the drugs most often found on falsified prescriptions for the past three years.

Fentanyl Opioid Overdose UNITED STATES Drug

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