Doctors very concerned about illegal painkillers on Dutch market
As Dutch doctors become increasingly cautious about prescribing addictive opioids, the illegal trade in strong painkillers like Oxycodone and Fentanyl is increasing, according to the Dutch Association of Anaesthesiologists (NVA). The association wants to quickly map out the scale of the opioid black market, because it poses serious health risks, the NVA told the Telegraaf.
“These types of opioids are increasingly proving to be contaminated,” said Frank Wille, an anesthesiologist, pain specialist, and spokesperson for the NVA. The first Dutch person recently died after drinking a fake Oxycodone pill that contained a form of nitazene - a type of opioide that is up to 100 times stronger than morphine. Two others suffered serious poisoning. In March last year, the police found a large batch of nitazene in the Netherlands - the first time the deadly drug had been discovered in the country.
Most opioid users in the Netherlands get their painkillers through doctor prescriptions. But according to the Trimbos Institute’s Drug Monitor, at least 90,000 people have bought painkillers illegally at some point. It is essential to find out how big the black market has become in the Netherlands, Wille said. If we know that, we can better prepare, he said.
According to Wille, three groups of people will buy strong painkillers illegally: people who were prescribed opioids after a surgery but continued to use them, people with mental health problems, and chronic pain patients who do everything they can to be pain-free for a while. The last group is the largest, consisting of around 1 million people in the Netherlands. “And because of the ageing population, it will only grow.”
Daan van der Grouwe, a drug researcher at the Trimbos Institute, is also concerned. “We would like to investigate which people buy which painkillers without a prescription, why they do so, and where,” he said. “Only when we know that, can we develop policy to prevent people from buying these types of drugs on the black market as much as possible in the future.”
