Previously more restricted to downtown São Paulo, K drugs – known as K2, K4, K9 and spice -, which are based on synthetic cannabinoids, have spread through the streets of the city. The East Zone is the main focus at the moment.
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Five years ago, 95% of the apprehensions received by the state’s Technical-Scientific Police involved marijuana and cocaine. Now, synthetics, which were 5%, now represent 15%. For the São Paulo Public Ministry, synthetic drugs are no longer the future of drug trafficking, they are the present. Young people, especially children, are most affected by the drug that the First Capital Command (PCC) calls spice.
Emergence
So-called K-drugs emerged in labs in the early 2000s and are based on synthetic cannabinoids, but the term “synthetic marijuana” is misleading. In these drugs, the lab-made cannabinoid binds to the same receptor in the brain as regular marijuana, but at up to 100 times greater potency. The São Paulo government says the effects of the drug can be worse than crack.
Why Synthetic Drugs Are a Challenge
Mainly because of the difficulty in inspecting. Drug dealers mix it in teas, for example, to make it difficult to identify. In addition, children and adolescents walk in groups through the streets of cities and migrate to various places without stopping at specific points, which makes tracking and reception difficult. Moreover, it has a high power of damage to users. These are drugs with a very high harmful potential and strong addictive power. This effect leads to the commission of crimes to pay for the drugs.
Seizures
In March, the State Department for the Prevention and Repression of Drug Trafficking (Denarc-SP) said that the fight against so-called K drugs is a priority for Public Security. Denarc seized 35.1 kg of K drugs from 2021 to 2023, 5.7 kg in 2021, 11.6 kg in 2022, and 17.8 kg in the first four months of this year. It seems little, but an A4-sized sheet, one of the forms in which the drug is presented, can contain up to 1,200 active microdots or stamps (equivalent to doses).
In Prisons
Drug seizures also increased in São Paulo prisons, and only in 2022 there were 4,091 occurrences, compared to 1,414 in the previous year. Faced with the escalation, the State Department of Penitentiary Administration prohibited the entry of bond paper and printed sheets in the units, materials that arrived sprayed with the cannabinoid to the inmates. The change was also adopted by the prison system in Rio de Janeiro and by the federal government, in the five maximum security prisons in the country. In the first four months of 2023, the São Paulo prison system carried out 528 seizures of the K9.
Our Analysis:
One of the difficulties currently faced is the lack of data on K-drug victims. Those circulating without official sources should not be considered and even the official ones are still inaccurate. There is also no method that identifies the cause of death of someone due to the use of these drugs. The Scientific Police is still developing new methods that accompany the new reality. Prosecutor Fonseca uses arguments that corroborate the few statistics that exist on the subject. He fears that in a short time the public health system will be overwhelmed by victims and addicts of synthetic drugs. Another issue is that criminals are always trying to innovate, and laboratories also must acquire new equipment to identify these new substances. Experts claim that this drug type has effects that can really be a risk not only for those who use it, but also for other people around that individual, who can become aggressive even commit crimes to support the addiction.
Souce: G1
