New designer drugs and adulterants: a threat to our youth

The coronavirus pandemic has allowed social scientists to reflect and observe reality in a different way, perhaps a little more slowly.

And is that Europe was confined for several months and nightlife stopped in a resounding way. From having for years and years the bars and clubs full of young people at all hours, suddenly, you had to go home and lock yourself in it.

But... What happened to drug use? How did the drug traffickers move the drug if the borders were closed? Given these doubts, the European Report on Drugs 2021 gives us some insight.

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Dynamics of drug use in times of COVID-19

According to this report, the great adaptability of the organizations involved in drug trafficking could be appreciated due to the fact that the availability of the various drugs in Europe was not seriously affected for the coronavirus pandemic.

Basically, the drug traffickers quickly adapted to the restrictions and changed the way they distribute the drugs. Social networks were used as a means of communication, and transport by sea to circumvent the closure of airspaces and home services.

The result was that drug use continued despite restrictive social distancing and confinement measures. What's more, As soon as restrictions were lifted, consumption levels were returned to before the pandemic..

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The problem of drug adulteration

We already know that not even a quasi-global lockdown could reduce drug use and trafficking. Now I would like to introduce myself to the subject that arouses my interest in writing this article. I will talk about some recreational drugs and the quality in terms of purity of them.

According to the European Report on Drugs 2021 there is a notable increase in cannabis adulterated with synthetic cannabinoids.

Quoting this report verbatim: “Any hypothetical situation in which people unconsciously consume synthetic cannabinoids is worrying given the toxicity of some of these substances, as illustrated by the outbreak of more than 20 deaths related to the synthetic cannabinoid 4F-MDMB-BICA produced in 2020 ”(European Report on Drugs 2021).

Thus, we find that cannabis is being adulterated with extremely dangerous substances to the point where users can be killed. Do users, mostly adolescents and young people, know what substances they are consuming? The answer is a resounding no.

And here is where we find ourselves with a very, very serious public health problem. Basically any young person can develop a severe mental disorder or even die on a Saturday partying due to the consumption of an adulterant. This uncontrolled adulteration is seen in most illegal drugs, as indicated by the same report regarding the MDMA. As extracted from the aforementioned report, an increase in the MDMA content of the various tablets analyzed is observed.

In addition, samples have been detected that have very high levels of MDMA, capable of producing psychotic pictures serious and very dangerous behavioral expressions.

Possible effects of these substances

The adverse effects of drugs will depend on the substance, the amount and the physical and psychological characteristics of the user. However, among the most dangerous adverse effects is undoubtedly the ability of some drugs to promote the appearance of chronic psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia.

A few weeks ago, in the province of Cáceres, Spain, a consignment of adulterated cocaine with a hitherto unknown asset killed two people and intoxicated several dozen. As read in the newspaper La Vanguardia, "those affected believed their bodies were invaded by insects or used oil to fry when in fact they put dishwashing detergent in the pan."

I don't want to give the impression of an excess of scaremongering; however, I consider the situation to be very serious. The levels of adulteration of drugs, due to their illegality and the lack of control that this implies, are very high. Cocaine samples are barely 30% pure, that is, the remaining 70% are adulterants and excipients, many of them capable of causing death.

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Proliferation of new drugs

In addition, there are a wide variety of new, poorly studied and potentially fatal drugs. More than 400 new substances were discovered on the European continent in 2019. Potent synthetic cannabinoids and opioids have also appeared that pose a real threat to the mental and physical health of consumers (according to the European Drug Report 2021).

These substances are consumed by thousands and thousands of young people, and yet there is no interest on the part of the health authorities to report on this reality. On the contrary, incorrect names continue to be used to name them. Can you call cocaine a white powder that has less than 30% cocaine hydrochloride, and the rest of adulterants? Not in my opinion. It is like calling a dough that is 30% potato and 70% flour, preservatives and colorings a potato, or calling a liquid that is only 7% fruit juice.

As an example of this reality, according to the aforementioned report on drugs, the average degree of purity of the different samples of amphetamines that are marketed at retail in the different countries that make up the European Union ranged between 13% and 67% in 2019 and 50% of nations reported an average purity of between 20% and 35%.

As a psychologist I can affirm that only to the extent that consumers know the reality of what they consume will they be able to take the necessary precautions to avoid substance-induced intoxication or psychotic or depressive conditions adulterated. That is why it is essential that those in charge of mental and physical health carry out the important work of informing and preventing our youth about the psychoactive substances that consume.

There is no other way, and I believe it's crucial to start calling things by name. What our teens think is cocaine is not. What they think is methamphetamine or amphetamine, either; it even happens with cannabis, as seen in the European report on drugs on synthetic cannabioids.

I would also like to mention another factor that further complicates this situation, and that is that Europe has gone from being a continent that imports drugs to a continent that produces and exports drugs. This is because new synthetic psychoactive substances can be produced in small home laboratories. Consequently, drug use in Europe no longer depends on the production of Asia or America, as historically it had happened, but Europe is now a continent that contributes drugs to consumption world.

This new reality radically increases access to drugs for our population, which is a risk factor more for the evolution and perpetuation of consumption and its consequent harmful effects on both physical and health mental.

Looking to the future

From my point of view, psychologists and all health professionals and social workers must alert the authorities of this situation and carry out information and prevention campaigns to stop this worrying reality. We cannot keep calling a drug by a wrong name. Our young people must know the truth about what they are consuming.

It should be a collective and institutional effort and should start as soon as possible, or else we will continue to receive news of deaths and severe mental disorders among our youth due to the ingestion of powerful, adulterated and dangerous substances.

It is worth mentioning that there are institutions and non-governmental organizations that carry out this informative and preventive work, but the dissemination is so little that the information does not reach the general population, which means that the effort is unsuccessful.

Nor should we blame consumers, many of them teenagers, since the same society and the environment in which these boys and girls develop constantly offers contradictory messages.

Alcohol advertising creates the feeling that alcoholic beverages are "good." There is constant talk about the supposed benefits of Cannabis and the different forms of leisure or celebration are almost always accompanied by alcohol; baptisms, weddings, soccer games, concerts, birthdays, among others. It is the same culture that in some way is promoting the normalization of risk behaviors such as the abusive consumption of alcohol and drugs.

There is much to do, much to analyze and I believe that it is never too late to take a turn and focus on a reality such as drug addiction from a more honest and accurate perspective, starting by emphasizing the various chemical compositions of drugs and their effects on the body and, continuing to inform potential consumers about the risks to which they are exposed for not knowing the above exposed.