Potent new drug hits Central Asia

By Monica Whitlock
BBC News, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Users inject China White but could die after their first hit

A narcotic has begun to appear on the streets of Central Asia, which scientists say could be much stronger than heroin and far more addictive.

The drug, known as China White, is smuggled across the mountains from China where it is made out of a medical anaesthetic.

Local addicts say it is readily available in Tashkent, the biggest city of Central Asia.

But drug officers there say that they have not come across it yet.

Fatal

China White is just one name for this powerful drug. Crocodile Snow Powder and Egg White are all terms used on the street.

It looks like milk powder, but it is the strongest drug I have ever seen Drug addict in Tashkent

"It looks like milk powder, but it is the strongest drug I have ever seen," said one young man in the addicts' drop-in centre in Tashkent.

He said that users became addicted very quickly.

Some though have died of overdose after their first injection.

China White is derived from fentanyl, an anaesthetic about 100,000 times more effective than morphine.

Central Asia vulnerable

China White has turned up in New York and Moscow before, but it is new to this part of the world.

Central Asia is very vulnerable to narcotics.

Its neighbour, China, is a major exporter of synthetic drugs while opium, heroin and hashish come from Afghanistan in the south.

Poverty and unemployment are endemic here and more people are both selling and using drugs.

China White, the addicts say, presents a special problem.

Its potency means that intravenous users tend to risk their health further by sharing needles.

Drug control officials say they have not heard of China White and have made no seizures, presumably because it has only appeared in the last few weeks.