Strong painkillers like oxycodone and fentanyl are extensively traded on the black market. Netherlands residents can easily get their hands on these highly addictive opiates via Telegram or WhatsApp, AD reports based on an investigation by Zembla.

Opiates like these are typically only available with a doctor’s prescription, specifically because they are highly addictive and have a high risk of overdose. But in the Netherlands, they can easily be obtained by sending a WhatsApp or Telegram message to the right person.

Undercover Zembla journalists did just that and easily bought boxes and strips of oxycodone. They were new, sealed, and equipped with unique QR codes. Zembla asked the RIVM to examine the medicine, and it concluded that the black market opiates did not differ from medicines available in the pharmacy.

Dealers told Zembla that the strong painkillers come from pharmacies and hospitals. The dealers have contacts with employees willing to steal the drugs.

At the Haga Hospital in The Hague, an anesthesia assistant was caught stealing morphine and sufentanil in December. She had been stealing large amounts of these extremely strong opiates for a long time. Hospital staff told AD that it was “childishly simple” to commit this theft. “You can enter the opiate safe dozens of times a day, and no one will notice.”

Figures from the Trimbos Institute show that at least 100,000 Dutch people use high-dose opiates without a doctor’s prescription every year. The Health and Youth Care Inspectorate is investigating “vulnerabilities in the legal chain” to learn more about the trade in opiates on the black market.