The green tablets look like OxyContin, but they actually contain protonitazepyne, a synthetic opioid 25 times stronger than fentanyl.
“This drug is super dangerous,” said Dr. Anne-Frédérique Lambert-Slythe, medical consultant at the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale.
This synthetic opioid has recently surfaced in Quebec City and was found circulating around Montreal at the start of 2024.
Public health authorities say the tablets can be spotted by their green colour and markings of “80” and “OP,” and are advising Quebecers to keep an eye out for signs of overdose.
Naloxone, a medication that can stop overdoses, is available free of charge in pharmacies, and several doses of the antidote may have to be administered to people who have taken protonitazepyne.
It is recommended that users in Quebec City go to local community organizations like SABSA to test their substances for protonitazepyne.
The original article contains 242 words, the summary contains 139 words. Saved 43%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
The problem was never the drugs. The problem was always the black market. Hateful politicians prefer that your brother overdoses over fixing the system.
Definitely, if they legalized everything than there would be no black market and everything would be out in the open. People are going to do drugs whether you want them to or not so why not just control it and regulate it all.
A way to deal with it would be to create a feedback system. Make money on the drugs, use the money back towards education and treatment. Keep all this money in an infinite loop onto itself. The more money is made in drugs, the more funds would be available to manage the drug problem.
And while you’re at it … nationalize all pharmaceuticals … the biggest issue with the modern drug problem is pharmaceuticals who created highly addictive drugs and sold them like candy until it became a black market problem that is now out of control.
I know I know … it’s all wishful thinking. But if we keep just banging our heads up against the wall, all we’re going to end up with is a concussion.
There’s still a black market for cigarettes and marijuana, so there will be for other drugs.
Besides, you are advocating for regulating pharma by making it harder to access opioids, yet saying that all drugs should be legalized. If you mean by decriminalized, then yes they should be; in fact, they are up to 2.5g. if you mean as regulated (under prescription), well that makes sense, and it’s exactly how Schedule I works (and opioids are Schedule I, in the same category as heroin for example).
The infinite money loop is interesting, but let’s face it: it only makes sense for drugs where the tax income outweighs the cost of treating it’s harm. Sure, a frequent smoker may thousands in tax over their lifetime. But how much will their cancer treatment cost? And that of their family (who paid 0 cigarettes tax) from 2nd hand smoke? Or in the case of heavily regulated liquor sales, it is indeed a good way to make a profit, but it’s unclear if it’s an effective way to make alcohol consumption safe, considering the number of alcohol-related deaths are on the rise (3800 in 2021). Keep in mind those are during times people didn’t drive/go out that much.
So really, legalizing and taxing harmful drugs is not a silver bullet. It might help, or it might make things worse; no one knows until they try it, but it’s clear the latter is what makes everyone scared. Instead, people should implement methods that have proven to be effective, including more naloxone kits (e.g. make them free at hotspots, extremely cheap otherwise, and available as nasal spray in every pharmacy in Canada) and supervised drug consumption rooms.
Same with prostitution. If it’s illegal, that’s the reason human trafficking is so lucrative. People are going to pay for sex, very few sex workers do it willingly knowing it’s illegal. Not to mention having no safe legal recourse when assaulted or robbed.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
The green tablets look like OxyContin, but they actually contain protonitazepyne, a synthetic opioid 25 times stronger than fentanyl.
“This drug is super dangerous,” said Dr. Anne-Frédérique Lambert-Slythe, medical consultant at the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale.
This synthetic opioid has recently surfaced in Quebec City and was found circulating around Montreal at the start of 2024.
Public health authorities say the tablets can be spotted by their green colour and markings of “80” and “OP,” and are advising Quebecers to keep an eye out for signs of overdose.
Naloxone, a medication that can stop overdoses, is available free of charge in pharmacies, and several doses of the antidote may have to be administered to people who have taken protonitazepyne.
It is recommended that users in Quebec City go to local community organizations like SABSA to test their substances for protonitazepyne.
The original article contains 242 words, the summary contains 139 words. Saved 43%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
At least Naloxone works against it, but yeah that’s terrible…
But you need several doses
I really worry for people doing recreational drugs these days. It was never safe but the risk wasn’t this bad before.
Yup. The shit I did in the 80’s has nothing on what’s out there now.
I remember once we had some opium-laced hash and thought that was crazy.
Hell, even ten years ago it feels like it was a whole different world.
The problem was never the drugs. The problem was always the black market. Hateful politicians prefer that your brother overdoses over fixing the system.
Definitely, if they legalized everything than there would be no black market and everything would be out in the open. People are going to do drugs whether you want them to or not so why not just control it and regulate it all.
A way to deal with it would be to create a feedback system. Make money on the drugs, use the money back towards education and treatment. Keep all this money in an infinite loop onto itself. The more money is made in drugs, the more funds would be available to manage the drug problem.
And while you’re at it … nationalize all pharmaceuticals … the biggest issue with the modern drug problem is pharmaceuticals who created highly addictive drugs and sold them like candy until it became a black market problem that is now out of control.
I know I know … it’s all wishful thinking. But if we keep just banging our heads up against the wall, all we’re going to end up with is a concussion.
There’s still a black market for cigarettes and marijuana, so there will be for other drugs.
Besides, you are advocating for regulating pharma by making it harder to access opioids, yet saying that all drugs should be legalized. If you mean by decriminalized, then yes they should be; in fact, they are up to 2.5g. if you mean as regulated (under prescription), well that makes sense, and it’s exactly how Schedule I works (and opioids are Schedule I, in the same category as heroin for example).
The infinite money loop is interesting, but let’s face it: it only makes sense for drugs where the tax income outweighs the cost of treating it’s harm. Sure, a frequent smoker may thousands in tax over their lifetime. But how much will their cancer treatment cost? And that of their family (who paid 0 cigarettes tax) from 2nd hand smoke? Or in the case of heavily regulated liquor sales, it is indeed a good way to make a profit, but it’s unclear if it’s an effective way to make alcohol consumption safe, considering the number of alcohol-related deaths are on the rise (3800 in 2021). Keep in mind those are during times people didn’t drive/go out that much.
So really, legalizing and taxing harmful drugs is not a silver bullet. It might help, or it might make things worse; no one knows until they try it, but it’s clear the latter is what makes everyone scared. Instead, people should implement methods that have proven to be effective, including more naloxone kits (e.g. make them free at hotspots, extremely cheap otherwise, and available as nasal spray in every pharmacy in Canada) and supervised drug consumption rooms.
Same with prostitution. If it’s illegal, that’s the reason human trafficking is so lucrative. People are going to pay for sex, very few sex workers do it willingly knowing it’s illegal. Not to mention having no safe legal recourse when assaulted or robbed.