Italy's Mafia May Be Quietly Keeping Fentanyl Out of the Country
The Mafia may be keeping fentanyl out of Italy
Italy's low overdose rate has puzzled observers, and police now suspect an unlikely explanation: the country's mafias have collaborated to keep fentanyl off their turf. The article draws a parallel to The Godfather, in which Don Vito Corleone refuses to enter the heroin trade as "a dirty business" — scruples that are rare among real mafiosi, yet may have played out in Italy over the past decade.
In "The Godfather", Don Vito Corleone refuses to engage in the heroin trade because he considers it "a dirty business". Outside of Hollywood scripts, such scruples are rare among mafiosi.
- gumby
It’s CLV (customer lifetime value): the integral of the MRR. Something most companies mentioned on HN should understand though it feels like Apple is the only one that takes it seriously
(And with Apple’s new CEO, the early signs are that commitment is headed for the ash heap as well, but it seems the Mafia may have a longer horizon)
- bilekas
I'm no expert, but I've always thought that adding much more risk to the lives of your customers unnecessarily is not good for business.
- pluc
This was the way it worked up here (in QC) with the 81s. If you sold shit that could draw attention to you, your organization or suppliers, you were swiftly taught not to. They had decent quality control, but as their grip slipped so did quality. Now we get fentanyl overdoses weekly.
- hnrprtlpdb
Did wastewater drug monitoring for a while, and the annoying bit was fentanyl metabolites sitting near the detection limit, so absence isn't proof.
- qoez
I always assumed this was an america-only drug that no one actually does or at least not to the excess that it's claimed by the publications using it for the normal fear journalism purposes.
- m101
There is not that much difference between the state and a mafia. The fact that the mafia has successfully managed to keep out fentanyl shows just how much democratically elected states are failing their citizens. This outcome is not surprising.
- dayvid
Basically the scene in the Godfather https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmucyqOOKZU
- jmpman
I've had a friend pass from an OD, when consuming what he thought was cocaine, which was actually laced with fentanyl. I wonder if the Italian mafia has a more profitable cocaine market, and don't want it contaminated, as is likely to happen with fentanyl, as the cocaine market, which I assume is recreational, would contract.