Fentanyl-laced drugs have taken the life of dozens of addicts

Drugs mixed with fentanyl, a synthetic analogue of heroin, take the lives of drug addicts in Varna. According to unofficial information from two addiction treatment centres, 10 people have died after using this drug in Varna in just a week.

Fentanyl is an opioid painkiller that is five thousand times stronger than methadone, but also a much cheaper synthetic product. Overdose leads to certain death as it blocks breathing. According to information from BNT sources, all sorts of drugs mixed with fentanyl are available on the illegal drug market - for injection, for inhalation, gels for spreading and tablets.

We'll call him Ivan. He's been using drugs since 2014 and up until nine months ago was taking cocaine, amphetamines, methamphetamines, ecstasy, weed and LSD. He knows that sometimes there are impurities in drugs, but he is not sure if he has taken fentanyl. And in most cases it didn't matter to him.

"Speaking to you now, I know what the substance is, I know what it can do to me, but when I get into a cycle of drug use, I don't think about things like that. I don't care what it is. My goal is to get high," he says.

A few months ago, a girl was discharged from the addition treatment centre where Ivan was being treated and, unfortunately, returned to using drugs again. She told her therapists at the centre that the drugs she bought were not clean.

"It felt different, the effect was different and it wasn't what she normally takes. She changed the place from where she used to buy the drugs, went to a alternative source and this proved to be fatal. Subsequently, a rumour started circulating among them that something was wrong," explained Pavel Pavlov, head of the association for prevention and work with addictions "Only Today".

Fentanyl is a highly addictive painkiller - a synthetic opiate like morphine.

"In Europe, as in America, fentanyl is widespread because it is very cheap and mixes with heroin. Dealers make huge profits. It is distributed in all forms. Those who use it do not know that they are using fentanyl. They mostly buy crystals or heroin," said Prof. Snezhana Zlateva, head of the Toxicology Clinic at the Naval Hospital - Varna.

"The doses are made on the street, mixed absolutely at random, adulterated, you don't know what's in them, how it works. It can have any effect, depending on how it is mixed," said Pavel Pavlov.

Figures show that nine drug addicts have died since spring, but it's not yet clear if fentanyl overdose. Was the cause. The police said that fentanyl analogues were found in Varna for the first time at the end of May.

"Two persons, women aged 53 and 42 from Varna, have been identified and detained. During the operation 200 grams of fentanyl analogue were seized. This is about 1400 doses," said Irena Petricheva, Varna Police Department.

Fentanyl is cheap, so drug dealers put it in everything without thinking that overdoses can kill people.

"As long as an addict is alive, they can recover from the addiction. When I am at a stage when I cannot resists the urge to use drugs, I don't think at all about what I can lose. I don’t even think I could lose my life," Ivan says.

And life is waiting for Ivan to come back and live it, without drugs.