Mexico’s President Proposes Banning Fentanyl for Medical Use

On March 15, 2023, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that he intends to ask scientists to explore substituting the fentanyl used for medical purposes with other analgesics. The president made this suggestion as a potential strategy to curb the importation of fentanyl. However, as of today, there is no other alternative as effective as fentanyl for pain relief. 

“I am going to ask Mexican doctors and scientists to analyze the possibility of replacing fentanyl for medical purposes with other analgesics to stop using it. Let us see if it is possible, because other analgesics were used before,” López Obrador says.

Pharmaceutical fentanyl is prescribed by health professionals to treat intensive pain such as that experienced by those who have recently undergone surgery or suffered multiple bone fractures. Fentanyl can be 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 stronger than morphine. Moreover, fentanyl has the advantage of not having a many collateral effects. 

However, fentanyl can also be used for illegal purposes and is sold as a powder, pills or even put into eye droppers and nasal sprays. On the other hand, the pharmaceutical is taken as a shot, used as a patch or as lozenges, reports the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Fentanyl is extremely addictive as it increases dopamine levels in areas of reward in the brain, producing a state of euphoria and relaxation. Over 150 people die every day after overdosing on synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. 

Nonetheless, limiting pharmaceutical fentanyl will not solve the problems caused by its illegal use, experts agree. “The fentanyl that is causing the deaths, as it is easy to have an overdose that leads to respiratory arrest, is the fentanyl that is made easily and cheaply in clandestine laboratories,” says Andrés Castañeda Prado, Health Consultant, Nosotrxs, as reported by El Economista.

The fentanyl crisis is again on the spotlight after the US pressured Mexico to address the issue. Republican representatives Dan Crenshaw of Texas and Michael Waltz of Florida proposed to solve the US’ fentanyl crisis by having President Joe Biden authorize military action against Mexican cartels. The proposal was presented in January 2023 and while it was initially unnoticed, it recently regained attention due to a recent increase in fentanyl trafficking. President López Obrador criticized this proposal saying it meddles in Mexico’s internal affairs, as reported by MBN. 

On March 9, 2023, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard met with US Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall to discuss possible strategies to deal with the fentanyl crisis in both countries.