Another Deadly Scourge to Fear: Opioids as Weapons of War

As the U.S. public-health system struggles to alleviate the scourge of opioid addiction that killed more than 50,000 Americans in 2016, a variation on the theme is the ramifications of this class of drugs as chemical weapons. Among the drugs at the forefront of the health crisis are the highly addictive fentanyl and a derivative, carfentanil, a cheaper and more toxic substance that drug dealers cut into heroin to increase their profits. But in 2002, medical tests also identified carfentanil as the unknown incapacitating agent that suffocated hundreds of civilians, some fatally, in a siege by armed militants at a Moscow theater.

Existing legal frameworks for chemical weapons or narcotics are heavily focused on preventing the proliferation and use of chemicals that only have single purpose. However, dual-use chemicals such as chlorine or synthetic opioids do not easily fit into these categories; chemical substances with very common uses but that also possess deadly properties hover in the gray areas in between. Chlorine has drawn far more attention since al-Qaida weaponized it in Iraq and Bashar al-Assad used it against his own people in Syria. But existing international frameworks are coming up short in addressing these security concerns, given that these types of chemical substances are too ubiquitous to effectively regulate and control. Thus, there is a need for the international community to think outside current traditional frameworks to effectively handle this emerging threat.