(Yicai Global) April 2 -- China will list all fentanyl-related substances as controlled narcotics and psychotropic drugs starting from May 1.

This means that substances containing the opioid will be classified as drugs in the legal sense, per the statement jointly released by several Chinese agencies.

Originally a painkiller, the opioid was developed in 1960 by Dr. Paul Janssen, founder of Belgium-based Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Similar substances have become the third-generation drugs popular worldwide after traditional and synthetic drugs since they are easy to synthesize and highly addictive. 

"Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more concentrated than morphine," said Prof. Michael Farrell, director of the National Drug & Alcohol Research Center at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. "It's very difficult for people to know just how much they are … injecting …," he said, adding, "Like all opioids including heroin, fentanyl is a respiratory depressant -- it interferes with the user's ability to breathe. Because it is so concentrated people can misjudge the dose for themselves to [a] dangerous degree," the NDARC website reported.

The new Chinese classification describes regulated related substances as those with other acyl groups instead of propionyl groups, with the classification also based on other chemical conditions.

Taking Laboratory Liberties

The new practice will prevent criminals from sidestepping legal sanctions by simply modifying the chemical composition and developing new varieties of the compound, Liu Yuejin, a counterterrorism commissioner and vice commissioner of the China National Narcotics Control Commission, said at a press conference yesterday.

China officially implemented its control measures on non-medicinal narcotic and psychotropic drugs in October 2015. They prohibit the production, sale, transport, use, storage and import and export of these drugs by any unit or individual.

The measures have improved the legal and regulatory system for drug control and provide a legal basis for curbing new drug crimes, per the China National Narcotics Control Commission.

The country has added fentanyl-related substances to its supplementary list of controlled narcotic drugs, per the statement.

Beijing is resolved to crack down on drug-related crimes, Liu said, adding it has made clear laws addressing such offenses. The Chinese government successively banned 25 kinds of similar opioid substances and two precursors before a corresponding substance abuse epidemic has ever even beset China, thus beating out the mere 21 compounds the UN controls.

China has thus introduced the concept for the first time due to the proliferation of forms of the drug and their rapid modification.

Editor: Ben Armour