Smokable cocaine is spreading rapidly in the country and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have also arrived some time ago. These are cheap drugs that have deadly consequences. The drug, which is also increasingly becoming a problem in Germany, seems completely harmless and resembles a pale sweet. When vaporized at 96 degrees in a pipe you can hear crackling noises and this is where the name comes from: “crackle”. It’s a mixture of cocaine, baking soda and water that takes effect in 10 seconds or less, faster than any other drug. It promises a hit of euphoria and is extremely addictive. And it directly leads to death if consumed in excess.
“The first priority is to ensure the survival of people, because this is a very dangerous situation. If you imagine that the substance can be consumed every half hour, then there is little time for recovery, practically no time for intake of food, hygiene or wound care,” Michael Harbaum told DW. “Crack is ultimately smokable cocaine and gives a feeling of euphoria. And it often leads to psychotic states if consumed for days on end.”
Rapid increase in crack use
Harbaum has been working at the Düsseldorf drug help center for 20 years, initially responsible for the drug consumption department and now as managing director. Graduated in social pedagogy, he has seen a lot on the streets of the city of 630 thousand inhabitants. But what crack does to drug addicts is another dimension. In 2017, he estimates that his organization counted only a few hundred crack cases in the Düsseldorf drug laboratory. Last year, however, there were more than 31 thousand.
“We are seeing a rapid increase and behavior is changing accordingly, as is the impoverishment of the people who come to us. Because crack is a substance that has a very strong and fast effect, but which also disappears very quickly. In this sense, the pressure to return to use quickly is very strong,” says Michael Harbaum. “Usually the pipe is shared because there is simply not enough money, so they buy some stones for about five euros (R $ 27), and everyone takes a puff.”
Increase in drug-related deaths
In 2022, almost 2,000 people across Germany died due to drug use, the highest level in 20 years. Heroin and the long-term effects of drug use are still the leading causes of death among users, but cocaine and crack intoxication has also increased, accounting for more than 400 deaths. Professor Daniel Deimel, an addiction researcher who together with other experts has developed recommendations to tackle crack use, also says he is alarmed.
“Crack has always been a problem in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Hanover for about 20 years. Since 2016, the drug has been spreading in Western Germany and other large cities such as Berlin, because Europe, and therefore also Germany, is awash in high-purity cocaine,” says Deimel. “The drug market is expanding because cocaine production in Colombia has increased significantly. The drug market and producers have diversified.”
Berlin seeks cooperation with South America
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has just returned from South America, where she traveled to Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru, partly to promote greater police cooperation against international drug trafficking. More and more cocaine is traveling from South America to Europe via the ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg.
Daniel Deimel has no great illusions. The cocaine market exists in Germany and production will continue on a large scale due to high demand. “We live here in a high-performance society. Cocaine is now consumed by many people in society, which has led to a kind of normalization. It is no longer the drug of the rich, the rich, the artists and the media professionals, as was cliché in the 80s and 90s.”
Unlike heroin, crack is not a substitute
Consumed in the form of crack, cocaine also reaches sales points in the main German cities. Last year Deimel investigated the drug scene in Cologne and the results are clear: almost all users said they had smoked crack at one time or another. Many of them are homeless. And serious psychological problems and even paranoia have often been reported in relation to crack use. The biggest problem, according to Deimel, is the lack of an antidote.
“There are already very well-developed medicinal interventions for heroin, such as treatment assisted by methadone substitution. For crack, however, there is no licensed and effective drug against this addiction. Therefore, we really need more research into this sector. And an emergency center also open at night, with service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
Synthetic opioids are increasingly consumed
A few days ago, Michael Harbaum and his team in Düsseldorf managed to accommodate 11 drug addicts in new accommodation directly at the city’s main train station, with security staff, social work and locked individual rooms. According to experts, this is a model that must urgently set a precedent, since other highly dangerous drugs are already arriving alongside crack: synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.
It is necessary to rethink support for drug addicts
The medicine, with an analgesic effect 10 to 50 times stronger than morphine, is mixed with heroin. In the United States, approximately 10,000 people die each year from opioid overdoses. In a six-month pilot project in 17 drug consumption venues in Germany, Deutsche Aids-Hilfe managed to demonstrate that 3.6 percent of the heroin samples provided contained traces of fentanyl.
“We suspect that this number will increase in the next 12 to 18 months,” fears Daniel Deimel. “Synthetic opioids are introduced onto the market and diluted with heroin. The problem is that these substances are significantly more potent, i.e. the lethal dose. In the case of fentanyl, two milligrams is enough, which is equivalent to the tip of a pencil.”
Last year there were 54 drug-related emergencies in Dublin, Ireland’s capital, due to the synthetic opioid nitazene. In Birmingham, England, 30 people died in the summer of 2023 due to the use of heroin containing synthetic opioids. The German government was also alerted to the problem.
Source: Terra
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