Synthetic Drug Surge
ContentsThis psychoactive drugs trip isn’t workingWorld Looks to InSight Crime for Mexico ExpertiseLabs make new, dangerous synthetic cannabinoid drugs faster than we can ban themLatest NewsAre synthetic cannabinoids dangerous? In late 2015, the drug agency persuaded its Chinese counterpart to add 116 synthetic drugs to its list of controlled substances; fentanyl and several analogs were included. In response, underground Chinese labs began tweaking the fentanyl molecule, which is easy to alter for anyone with basic knowledge of chemistry and lab tools. By adding chemical groups, unscrupulous chemists have created new, unregulated variants, some of them even more potent than the original. Kullu SP Gurdev Sharma said in order to eliminate the network of heroin smugglers, a special team of the local police had arrested 23 foreign nationals since July 2019, 17 of…