a synthetic drug is causing problems for security agencies in São Paulo

Brazilian authorities are alarmed by the manufacture and consumption of K9, a new synthetic drug, which is causing problems for security agencies because it is highly addictive, easily accessible, and circulates in the central region of São Paulo, one of the largest cities in Brazil.

Weekly operatives arrest drug traffickers and discover laboratories where the drugs are manufactured, police chief Carlos Castiglioni explained.

“Due to the appearance of drugs, we began to attack the manufacturing houses and not only the big drug traffickers in São Paulo. We are finding them all over the periphery and in Greater São Paulo. The K9 has become popular very quickly and in a terrifying way”, says Castiglioni.

Its rapid expansion is partly due to the fact that the price is very cheap. A vial costs less than three reais (less than a dollar), which makes it easier for people who live on the streets to consume it.

According to the Brazilian police, the formula arose in the prisons, promoted by the so-called First Command of the Capital, the main criminal faction in the country.

Manufacturing and measurements

The voice of america visited a toxicology laboratory to understand the addictive power of the new substance. According to professor of biological sciences Jan Carlo Delorenzi, K9 was named synthetic cannabidiol because it activates the same brain regions as THC, the main component of marijuana.

“This group of synthetic substances is among the disruptive drugs. The hallucinogenic effect is very fast, it has a mixture of stimulants and depressants that causes the disturbance that people have. And it gives these effects that the person does not speak, many times he looks like a zombie, with his eyes fixed, “explained Delorenzi.

In the streets, the VOA found people using the substance, wandering around like zombie, without control of the body. It is also possible to find the residues of the new drug in the center of São Paulo.

They are K9 butts, a synthetic drug made by traffickers in laboratories on the outskirts of the largest city in South America.

According to the São Paulo city hall, it has already treated 102 people suspected of K9 poisoning this year alone, and in the same way that it fights against other drugs, it should expand the mandatory hospitalization service for these chemical dependents.

São Paulo has been trying to withdraw users from the city center which has seen the number of robberies and assaults skyrocket in recent weeks. But for Guaracy Mirard, a security specialist, operations are not the best solution to the problem.

“There is no magic formula that must be worked on for a long time. Every time you do an operation, you infect it. Where the user is, there is the provider. You will have to work hard to reduce it. Working like this is dry ice”, says Mirard.

According to the Brazilian Department of Health, so far this year, suspected cases of poisoning by K drugs (K2, K4, K9) or synthetic cannabinoids have doubled, compared to 2022. In the case of São Paulo, 216 suspected cases of exogenous poisoning by these drugs have been registered.

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