The Minister of Health of the province of Buenos Aires, Nicholas Kreplakaffirmed this Thursday that three of the people intoxicated with adulterated cocaine that this Wednesday night they were discharged had to be treated again in Buenos Aires hospitals because they consumed that substance again and maintained that “it is not confirmed that it is fentanyl with which they cut the drug.”
“We have had three cases of people discharged with intoxication last night, which today they came back because they consumed again“, raised the official in statements made to the TN signal.
Regarding the substance with which the drug was adulterated, the minister told Radio El Destape that “it is not confirmed that it is fentanyl (designer drug whose action is similar to morphine) with which they cut the drug and we are waiting for the results of the samples we sent”.
“We think it’s fentanyl because of the strong effect it caused,” he said, adding that “in many countries around the world they are cutting the drug” with this substance.
“Fentanyl saves lives, but misused is dangerous,” he said in relation to its use in medicine for its analgesia and anesthesia actions.
He stressed that “we cannot stigmatize people who have problematic consumption problems and we can’t chase them”.
Asked about the discussion for the decriminalization of drugs, Kreplak considered that “all debates have to take place because we are in a democracy”.
“In health terms, the debate revolves around whether prohibiting substances has good effects,” he said, while recalling “the policy of fighting drugs has failed since Richard Nixon (former president of the United States) until now.”
Epidemiological alert
The official reiterated the request to the community not to consume the drug acquired in the last 24 or 48 hours and remarked, however, that in the area where the adulterated cocaine was sold “20,000 doses were seized”, with which “the prevented a catastrophe.
Kreplak noted that the alert aims to “let the community know that you are consuming a substance that puts your life at risk in a few hours”, and asked “not to consume such a dangerous substance because it puts your health at risk”.
“By issuing the alert, we also ask the health services to be vigilant in order to make an accurate diagnosis and treat with an antidote. They worked in coordination and we have had no more deaths since last night,” Kreplak emphasized.
“These are very complex situations and we must take the problematic use of substances very seriously. It is very difficult. We must not simplify, we must approach them with a lot of work and care,” he added, explaining that yesterday “many lives were saved.”
In this framework, the minister said that “an emergency program is being carried out together with the Ministry of Development to accompany the hospitalized people who will be discharged in a few days”, with the aim that they do so “with a treatment for be able to contain the situation of substance use and addiction”.
“We are also accompanying family members who have lost someone,” he said, noting that “the province has a territorial prevention program because it is a sensitive issue.”
