Delirious month: mass drug poisonings noted in Serpukhov
According to Izvestiya's source, drug addicts who have used "concentrated" opioids produced in artisanal conditions are systematically and massively dying in Serpukhov near Moscow. Currently, law enforcement authorities of the Moscow region are studying the situation. Details - in the material "Izvestia".
Needless losses
Law enforcement agencies received the results of forensic medical examinations on the facts of deaths and poisonings of drug addicted residents of Serpukhov in 2024. According to Izvestia's source in the law enforcement agencies, the materials of the audit report 11 reliably established fatalities. Thus, in late January - early February this year after taking a lethal dose of the opioid drug methadone, 42-year-old Andrey G., 34-year-old Stanislav M., 53-year-old Andrey G. and 40-year-old Denis S. died. Another outbreak of deaths due to methadone poisoning occurred in the city from April to May, four people died - a 35-year-old woman and three men (25, 27 and 35 years old). The drug claimed two more lives in September - the victims were men aged 34 and 42.
According to Izvestiya's source, most of the people who died in Serpukhov were drug addicts with a long history of drug abuse, who had long ago undermined their health by using illegal substances. Some of them had previously had problems with the law, both related to drug trafficking and under other articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Why mass
- Methadone is an extremely dangerous synthetic drug of the opioid group. Its overdose is a very frequent phenomenon. Unfortunately, we are no longer surprised by such cases. The main cause of death in opiate overdose is blockage of the respiratory center in the brain stem. Why is this happening en masse? The most common cause is a new supply of more concentrated drugs. Addicts, accustomed to lower concentrations, make the previous dose. This is how an overdose occurs," Daniil Petrov, a narcologist and chief physician at Dr. Isaev's Clinic, explained to Izvestia.
As explained by the specialist, in case of an obvious overdose, a drug addict should call an ambulance. Doctors will take the necessary measures possible in this situation.
The mistake of a pawnbroker
According to Sergei Pelikh, an expert on international drug trafficking, a retired colonel of justice, it is very likely that fatal overdoses are related not so much to the "purity" of the product as to the couriers' mistake.
- Drug traffickers are greedy guys, and they are unlikely to spoil the buyer with a product with a high content of the active ingredient. Practice shows that in such cases it is often a mistake of the courier: the client buys mephedrone, but receives an opioid analog by mistake.
As the expert explained, as a result, the addict uses the illegal substance in a dose that inevitably leads to death. Sergey Pelikh recalled the story of mass poisoning of drug addicts in Astrakhan in the fall of 2023. Then 19 drug users ended up in intensive care, three people died. During the investigation, law enforcement agencies detained three alleged drug dealers in Stavropol Krai, who turned out to be foreign citizens from Central Asian republics. In addition to articles on illegal trafficking of narcotic substances, the pawners, who acted in the interests of underground drug stores, were charged with causing death by negligence. A similar incident occurred in Rostov-on-Don in February 2022. A married couple died (both spouses systematically used narcotic substances) .
Change of fashion
Sergei Pelikh does not rule out that in the near future, opioids and their analogs will return to the black market in Russia in large quantities. This will inevitably lead to an avalanche-like increase in the number of deaths from the use of these substances. In addition, the specialist noted that drug producers already have the equipment needed to synthesize methadone, and the raw materials are readily available on the black market. However, as Pelich pointed out, it should be understood that methadone prepared in homemade conditions can almost always be fatal.
The return of opioids is dictated, among other things, by the geopolitical situation, the retired colonel said.
- Heroin flooded into Russia after the Afghan war, and another wave of opioid shipments began with the outbreak of armed conflicts in the North Caucasus. Obviously, we are being prepared for another expansion of deadly drugs. But to make it easier for themselves, the drug business will use clandestine laboratories rather than haul the cargo across several borders thousands of kilometers away from the Ferghana Valley.
According to the Russian Interior Ministry, from January to September 2024, 145.6 thousand crimes related to drug trafficking were detected. Of these, more than 65 thousand were committed with the use of information technologies (8% more than the same indicator of the last year). More than a third of the total number of drug-related crimes were committed on a large and especially large scale (almost 54,000 crimes). Adygea, Kalmykia, and KCR are the leaders in terms of the growth rate of drug crimes. The registration of drug offenses in Ingushetia, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Novosibirsk Region decreased significantly.
