Addiction care institution Novadic-Kentron is not surprised that 49 people may have died who bought pills via the funcaps website. Prevention officer Alex van Dongen knows that this website is the most popular among users. He knows seven people who ordered products from these types of web shops and who have died.
He attended the funerals of some. They mainly bought the drug flakka on those websites. “Funcaps was the most popular site among them. Those deaths were not included in the Public Prosecution Service investigation. This means that the question is how many there really are. It will be difficult to demonstrate that there is actually a connection, because an autopsy is never performed,” said the Novadic-Kentron prevention officer.
Attje Kuiken, director at the addiction care institution, calls the number of deaths linked to Funcaps ‘shocking’. “It is sad for us to find that we have been seeing this for some time.”
Illegal trade in medicines
In August, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) arrested a 31-year-old and a 30-year-old man suspected of illegal drug trafficking, the first hearing of which was last week. According to Van Dongen, these are designer medicines: they are made to imitate medical effects, but have never been tested as medicine. This concerns drugs for anxiety and serious sleep problems that can be harmful or even fatal if used incorrectly.
Novadic-Kentron is known that people use sites to obtain such resources. According to Van Dongen, Funcaps is clearly the largest and most popular. He says that since 2016, these types of sites have been on the rise. He recently counted with a group of users and came across a total of 25. Funcaps is now offline.
Fast, cheap and freely available
But why do you surf to such web shops? According to the prevention officer, there are several reasons. It is fast, cheap and they often think that a freely available drug is not that harmful. “People are also looking for a certain effect. For example, if they cannot sleep or if they think a doctor prescribes too little.”
For example, synthetic benzodiazepines, intended as sleeping and tranquilizers, are available on such sites. “People overdose and become addicted. They often don’t know what they are buying. Then they think: ‘This must be comparable to diazepam’. People did not realize how strong it actually was.”
Previously, drugs such as flakka and meauw, including 2- and 3-MMC, were also for sale in those places. But that has changed, because these drugs have been banned since July due to an amendment to the Opium Act, the law that describes chemical substances.
Legislative change needed
According to director Kuiken, such changes in the law should happen more often. She insists that stronger action will be taken. She believes that politics is also needed for this. “We want the substances that can be used to make these types of drugs to be banned. This is necessary to prevent future victims.”
Warning is also necessary to make people aware of this. For example, Van Dongen says he has already written a guest opinion in the newspaper several times, in which relatives have also had their say. According to him, the best solution is to take the websites down. “But that is not so easy.”