PURPOSE: to subject the new psychoactive substance N-(4-fluorophenyl)-2-methyl-N-[1-(2phenylethyl)piperidin-4-yl)propanamide (4-fluoroisobutyrylfentanyl) to control measures.
PROPOSED ACT: Council Implementing Decision.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the Council adopts the act after consulting the European Parliament but without being obliged to follow its opinion.
BACKGROUND : the risk assessment report on 4-fluoroisobutyrylfentanyl prepared by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and sent to the Commission and the Council on 14 November 2017 concludes that this substance - available in the Union since at least August 2014 and detected in 4 Member States - is a synthetic opioid structurally related to fentanyl, which is a controlled substance widely used in medicine as an adjunct to general anaesthesia during surgery and for pain management.
The substance appears to be sold online in small and wholesale amounts, as a so-called research chemical or as a legal replacement to illicit opioids, in powder form, in liquid form for example in ready-to-use nasal sprays, and in blotter form. It has no recognised human or veterinary medical use in the Union.
One Member State has reported 16 deaths where exposure to 4-fluoroisobutyrylfentanyl was confirmed. No acute intoxications with confirmed exposure to the substance were reported.
The available evidence and information on the health and social risks that the substance poses, given also its similarities with fentanyl, acryloylfentanyl and furanylfentanyl, provides sufficient grounds for subjecting 4-fluoroisobutyrylfentanyl to control measures across the Union.
CONTENT: the draft Council decision aims to subject the new psychoactive substance 4-fluoroisobutyrylfentanyl to the control measures and criminal penalties provided for by Member States legislation, in accordance with their obligations under the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1971.
For more details, see the summary of the Commission's initial legislative proposal dated 18.12.2017.