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 Oct. 22, 2019: Ohio averts landmark lawsuit in last-minute $215 million settlement.

Approximately 400,000 people have died as a result of opiate abuse between 1999 and 2017. Numbing pain with analgesics without understanding or seeking its cause inevitably leads to a downward spiral that has proven particularly dramatic in the U.S., but which also had significant consequences in Germany as well. Once the prescribing physician’s budget is expended, no more opiates can be prescribed, thus the patient is then on his or her own. The patient then either endures the pain and struggles with withdrawal symptoms or goes the illegal route. Neither option poses a rosy prospect.

Most opium sold as heroin in Germany comes from Afghanistan (90% of the world’s trade) and financially benefits the Taliban. According to a BBC report, the area used to grow opium in Afghanistan has increased from 74,000 hectares in 1994 to over 300,000 hectares in 2017.6 In Germany, 34.8% of young adults have had experience with illicit drugs. Cannabis is often the drug of choice, but others are also used in 7% of cases. However, the trend is upward for all drugs. While Mexico registered 33,743 murders in 2018 and this has sadly increased to 34,582 in 2019 (4) (that’s 95 murders a day!), drug-associated crime is not as evident in this country. Nevertheless, the money generated by the sale of drugs is used to finance crime, including in Europe (5,6). One of the largest drug seizures destined for Germany occurred in Italy in November 2019, where nearly 1,200 kg of cocaine from South America was discovered in banana crates (7). The largest find across Europe occurred in Spain in April 2018, when about nine tons were found in containers.