Combating illicit fentanyl: Will increased Chinese regulation generate a public health crisis in India?

Abstract

This study examines how Chinese drug regulations are shifting illicit fentanyl production from China to India. This change has implications for the law, drug enforcement, pharmaceutical industry, and public health, as domestic production increases domestic access to fentanyl, in India. An empirical examination of current trends in fentanyl production and use in the region is conducted, along with an exegesis of the legal and regulatory systems in China and India. There is an accounting of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, the strengths and weaknesses of drug legislation, and the public health consequences of increased production, distribution, and use of fentanyl in India. This study also details how the Indian government meets this challenge through legislative mechanisms, foremost through class-wide legislative control over fentanyl and its precursors. Class-wide control prohibits the unlawful production and distribution of all current and future fentanyl analogs and their precursors, disincentivizing and disrupting their development and production. The Indian government should also reduce domestic demand by promoting harm reduction measures such as opioid substitution therapy, evidence-based treatment, fentanyl test strip and naloxone distribution, and needle exchange programs.

Legal Approaches to New Psychoactive Substances: First Empirical Findings

“…(3) some fentanyl precursors needed for the synthesis of therapeutic drug were exempted [65]; and (4) IMF production and trafficking was taken over by crime syndicates van Amsterdam/Burgess/van den Brink [66] in countries including India and Myanmar [65]. A 2019 UNODC report noted that IMFs were identified in samples sold as heroin in cryptomarkets from a variety of European vendors [67].…”

Decoding hidden darknet networks: What we learned about the illicit fentanyl trade on AlphaBay

“…Chinese traffickers have also moved certain operations to other countries, such as India [36]. Chinese and Indian traffickers of fentanyl precursors operating from India have been linked to Mexican organized criminal groups and/or affiliates [37]. Therefore, although Mexico and China still remain key fentanyl source countries, "the flow of fentanyl into the United States in 2019 is more diverse compared to the start of the fentanyl crisis in 2014, with new source countries and new transit countries emerging as significant trafficking nodes" (p. 2) [30].…”

Incentivizing Narcotics Control Through China’s Belt and Road Initiative in South and Southeast Asia

“…China needs to take active measures to combat the production and distribution of chemical precursors used to make drugs such as methamphetamine and fentanyl. Most of these precursors are produced in China and then distributed by Chinese TCOs, including the Sam Gor cartel and other triads (Allard, 2019a; Pollard, 2022; The Asian Post, 2019a), to regional drug manufacturing hubs (Felbab-Brown, 2022b; Wang & Lassi, 2022; Wang et al, 2022). This illicit activity has been ongoing for decades, with Chinese chemical factories supplying significant amounts of methamphetamine precursors to cartels and militias in Southeast Asia.…”