The Italian government is sounding the alarm after 80 vials of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to one hundred times more powerful than morphine, were stolen from Rome’s Israelitic Hospital.

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The missing quantity would be enough to produce up to around 20,000 doses potentially destined for illicit use, which in countries such as the United States and Canada has become a national emergency.

Fentanyl is used legally in medicine as an anaesthetic and to treat severe pain, including in cancer patients. But taking this “party anaesthetic” for non-medical purposes has devastating effects. As little as 3 milligrams of the “zombie drug” (as it is known when mixed with xylazine) are enough to kill a person.

In Italy too, its growing spread on the illegal drug market has raised public health concerns, leading to a “National prevention plan against the improper use of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids” presented in March 2024 by the Anti-Drugs Policy Department of the Prime Minister’s Office.

How the fentanyl theft unfolded

The head of the hospital pharmacy reported the theft on 24 June. What is striking is the absence of any sign of forced entry on the safe where the vials were kept, the keys to which are held by several members of staff.

Prosecutors in Rome have opened an investigation. An initial report on the incident has been sent to the criminal court of the capital. The inquiries have been entrusted to the Carabinieri’s NAS unit. The case concerns allegations of theft and possession with intent to supply narcotic substances.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Health – at the instigation of Minister Schillaci – has launched an inspection through its competent offices. The ministry is also preparing “a new circular to further step up checks on the improper use and circulation of fentanyl and on how it is stored in medical and hospital facilities”.

The government’s response

The theft prompted an emergency meeting at Palazzo Chigi, chaired by undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano. During the meeting “the need to ensure compliance with the procedures laid down for the management of high-risk medicines, in order to protect public health and prevent similar incidents from happening again” was reiterated.

“In the coming days,” it was explained, “the monitoring committee on the implementation of the anti-fentanyl plan will be reconvened at Palazzo Chigi, with the aim of ensuring that all the parties involved put in place the necessary safeguards and controls”.

Meanwhile, the Lazio Region has ordered an extraordinary inspection visit to Rome’s Israelitic Hospital to check how the hospital pharmacy manages narcotic drugs.

At the same time, it “announces that it has instructed the territorially competent local health authorities to verify the proper management of narcotic drugs in the region’s various hospitals, thereby extending the control measures to the entire regional territory so as to guarantee the highest safety standards”.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz scolded Iran during this week’s U.N. Security Council meeting, saying Tehran “will not silence” the body following claims by the Islamic Republic’s representative that council members were spreading falsehoods about its recent attack targeting neighboring Gulf states.

“Let me remind you where you are,” Waltz told Iranian diplomat Amir Saeid Iravani. “This is the United States of America. This is the United Nations Security Council. You will not silence this body.”

Waltz’s remarks came during an emergency meeting of the council in response to drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait Sunday after new U.S. airstrikes against Iran.

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During his remarks, Iravani argued the council should not have met, while accusing the U.S., Bahrain and other members of lying.

“Once again, the representative of the United States has resorted to lies and disinformation against Iran in a desperate attempt to justify the US’s unlawful acts of aggression,” Iravani said.

He also rejected the “unfounded accusations made by certain Western members of the Council and the representative of Bahrain.”

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“Instead of addressing the root cause of the current crisis, they have ignored the unlawful aggression committed against Iran and sought to shift blame onto the victim,” he added. “Their double standards and hypocritical behavior have deprived them of any credibility to lecture others.”

In a post on X, Waltz reiterated his position.

“Iran will not silence us on our own soil,” he wrote. “That might work in Tehran, but not in the UN Security Council. We will tell the truth.”

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During the exchange, Waltz held up what he said were images of the aftermath of the Iranian attacks, including a family whose home in Bahrain was destroyed by a Shahed drone, a hotel full of tourists that was also hit and a building used by first responders that Waltz said was deliberately targeted.

“Are they lying?” Waltz said of the victims of the attack. “Is this hypocrisy? Is this what this council is here to denounce today? I ask the representative, are these lies? … I’d say not.”

Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Bahrain’s minister of foreign affairs, said that, since Feb. 28, the island nation has been subjected to 808 attacks comprising 203 ballistic missiles and 605 armed drones.

“These attacks deliberately targeted civilian facilities, critical infrastructure and residential areas, resulting in the deaths of three innocent civilians and injuries to 465 others,” he said, disputing Tehran’s claim that its aggression is directed solely against military objectives.

Washington and Tehran have repeatedly accused each other of violating a fragile ceasefire agreement. On June 27, President Donald Trump said U.S. forces struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites after Iran violated the deal.

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The exchanges of fire began when an Iranian drone struck a merchant vessel off Oman last week and the U.S. military retaliated, officials said.

“It is very possible that they will never learn! There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!”