Istanbul police bust over 650 kilograms of meth

ISTANBUL

Istanbul police’s anti-narcotic unit has seized over 650 kilograms of methamphetamine in the latest operation, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has informed.

The teams busted 654 kilograms of crystal and liquid methamphetamine in the operation carried out in the Beykoz district, Soylu wrote in a social media post, congratulating the unit.

Doses of 200 mg of methamphetamine are considered “fatal,” as the psychological effects can include euphoria, dysphoria, changes in libido, alertness, apprehension, decreased sense of fatigue, insomnia, or wakefulness.

A report by the Security General Directorate’s Narcotics Department, which was prepared as a result of the research started with more than 6,000 participants in 2018, underlined that among the common features of drug users is that the majority of them “don’t have a job” and their “livelihood is provided by others.”

According to the study, while methamphetamine-related deaths accounted for 7.8 percent of overdose deaths in 2017, this rate surpassed 46 percent in 2021.

The study reported that the drug detected in 54 provinces in 2015 has spread to the country’s all 81 provinces as of 2020, while the amount of use has doubled only in the first seven months of 2022.