Two new extremely toxic drugs have just been discovered in Vietnam.

Each tablet containing the new drug is sold for 200-500 thousand dong.

In addition to traditional drugs, recently through the fight, the police in some localities have discovered some types of suspected new drugs and sent samples for examination. The examination results at the Institute of Criminal Science - Ministry of Public Security have discovered a new type of drug in the pink tablet samples. According to the Drug Examination Center of the Institute of Criminal Science - Ministry of Public Security, this is a type of synthetic drug that has just appeared, not on the list of drugs in Vietnam as prescribed by the Government.

Major Hoang Ngoc Mai, an appraiser at the Drug Appraisal Center, Institute of Criminal Science - Ministry of Public Security, said that this pill contains two ingredients that are not yet on the list of drugs in Vietnam: propylphenidate and acetylpsilocin. “When used, propylphenidate stimulates the central nervous system. When used, acetylpsilocin, the body will convert to psilocin, a very strong hallucinogen found in psychoactive mushrooms.”

The experts from the Drug Appraisal Center, Institute of Criminal Science - Ministry of Public Security conduct an appraisal of candles containing new drugs.

It is known that each tablet containing this new drug has a market price of about 200,000-500,000 VND. Currently, the Ministry of Public Security is also coordinating with relevant agencies to report to the Government to add these two substances to the list of drugs, to prevent subjects from taking advantage of loopholes in illegal production and trading.

Previously, according to information spread among young people about a type of drug mushroom. Through analysis, it was shown that this type of mushroom contains psilocine and psilotcin - 2 active ingredients in the list of drugs absolutely prohibited for use in medicine and life. The two active ingredients psilocine and psilotcin are the cause of strong hallucinations for users. These 2 active ingredients are in list 1 - drugs absolutely prohibited for use in both medicine and social life of Decree No. 73/2018/ND-CP regulating the list of drugs and precursors.

According to Lieutenant Colonel, Dr. Dang Van Doan, Deputy Director of the Institute of Criminal Science - Ministry of Public Security, in recent years, through the work of appraisal and crime scene investigation, the criminal technical force discovered that subjects have taken advantage of loopholes in the law to produce and trade new narcotics and psychotropic substances, including substances that are not yet on the list of narcotics and precursors of the Government or have never appeared in our country.

This is a trick of taking advantage of the fact that drugs are not on the list of drugs in Vietnam, or appear for the first time, to commit crimes: illegal production, transportation, trading, use, etc., causing difficulties in handling and fighting this type of crime, especially causing difficulties for appraisal work.

Two new drugs were discovered in samples of purple-pink tablets.

After the new list of narcotic substances and precursors under Decree No. 73/2018/ND-CP dated May 15, 2018 of the Government came into effect, the number of narcotic substances under management doubled compared to before (currently there are over 500 substances). The provision of standard samples for appraisal is still lacking or not available, not timely. This is the biggest difficulty in appraisal work.

For new drugs, conventional methods of identification such as: Color reaction has not been studied, thin layer chromatography and gas chromatography cannot be used for identification, because there is no standard sample for comparison. To be able to make a definitive conclusion about these drugs or other new drugs, modern chemical structure analysis methods must be used such as infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (GC/MS/MS), high performance liquid chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry GC-HPLC-MS (ToF),... which only the Institute of Criminal Science - Ministry of Public Security can meet. Most of the suspected new and complex drugs are beyond the identification capacity of the local Police Criminal Technique Departments and must be transferred to the Institute of Criminal Science for identification.

Furthermore, due to the lack of awareness and understanding of new drugs, the work of crime scene investigation and sample collection for appraisal by drug crime prevention agencies still has limitations such as: insufficient sample collection, non-representative sample collection, etc., leading to difficulties in appraisal work.

To prevent the spread of narcotics as well as improve the effectiveness of drug appraisal, it is necessary to strictly control related chemicals and precursors. This requires interdisciplinary coordination between ministries and branches: Public Security, National Defense, Industry and Trade, Agriculture, Health... to control sources of substances containing narcotics and precursors. In addition, timely update information related to the drug situation in the world, especially new narcotics, to be proactive in appraising drugs, detecting and effectively preventing drug crimes.

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