MADRID: A Spanish newspaper has reported that the drastic decline in poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has created a gap for fentanyl across Europe. The European Drug Monitoring Center has cautioned about the risk of harmful synthetic opiates like fentanyl derivatives filling the gap.
Joan Villalbí, the Government Delegate for the National Plan on Drugs, expressed concern over the possibility of synthetic opiates entering Spain, stating that authorities are closely monitoring the situation.
Afghan Taliban declared that they would ban the growing of opium in Afghanistan. Now we have the first indications that it might be happening, Villalbí stated. The report also highlighted an additional concern linked with drug shortages.
Ramon Chacón, the top investigative commissioner for Barcelona, acknowledges that there is a window of opportunity. He described the effects of a hypothetical heroin scarcity on European markets, stating that people would switch to more risky options. “They labeled it a ‘chaos theory’: if poppies are not cultivated in Afghanistan, thousands of people will die in Europe,” he claimed. However, he emphasized that the available data disproves the notion that this scenario is about to fall upon Europe.
Opium poppy production in Afghanistan has dramatically decreased by 95 percent since the Taliban banned narcotics cultivation in 2022, according to the United Nations.
