China bans synthetic opioids blamed for US drug deaths
China said yesterday it would ban a designer drug called U-47700 and three others, following US pressure to do more to control synthetic opioids blamed for fast-rising overdose deaths in the United States. In China, U-47700 has until now been a legal alternative to fentanyl and potent derivatives like carfentanil. Its usage has been growing among US opioid addicts. Last year, the US Drug Enforcement Administration listed U-47700 in the category of the most dangerous drugs it regulates, saying it was associated with dozens of fatalities, mostly in New York and North Carolina. Some of the pills taken from Prince’s estate after the musician’s overdose death last year contained U-47700.
The DEA has long said that China is the top source country for synthetic opioids like fentanyl and its precursors, assertions Beijing has said lack firm evidence. Still, the two countries have deepened cooperation as the US opioid epidemic intensifies. Deng Ming, deputy director of the National Narcotics Control Commission, said that U-47700 and three other synthetic drugs - MT-45, PMMA, and 4,4’-DMAR - would be added to China’s list of controlled substances as of July 1.
Yu Haibin, a division director at the Ministry of Public Security’s Narcotics Control Bureau, said China was making “big efforts” to deal with drugs known as new psychoactive substances. These substances are made by modifying the chemical structures of controlled substances in order to get around the law, and China has now restricted 138 of them. However, as soon as one substance is banned, chemists create slightly different and technically legal alternatives and then market them online.
“My feeling is that it’s just like a race and I will never catch up with the criminals,” Yu told a news conference. “Actually, we just want to make a breakthrough in dealing with this.” To counter the cat-andmouse game, Yu said authorities had set up a system whereby information on new types of drugs gleaned during police investigations, customs clearances and medical treatment would be transferred to the national drug lab. An expert committee would then assess this information and send alert notices to relevant agencies in order to help speed up the control of new substances, he said.
Yu said suspects use the internet to communicate with customers and use the anonymized digital currency bitcoin to transfer money, and that authorities were working with internet companies to try to stop such trade and the advertising of drugs on websites.