IN “The Godfather(《教父》，经典黑帮电影)”, Don Vito Corleone refuses to engage in the heroin trade because he considers it “a dirty business”. Outside of Hollywood scripts, such scruples(道德顾虑，良心不安) are rare among mafiosi(黑手党分子（复数）). Yet police in Italy are coming to the conclusion(逐渐得出结论) that a real-life version of this plot point may have played out(上演，发生) there over the past decade. The country’s mafias seem to have collaborated(合作，勾结) to keep fentanyl out of their territory.
在《教父》里，维托·柯里昂拒绝涉足海洛因生意，因为他觉得那是“肮脏的买卖”。在好莱坞剧本之外，黑手党分子很少有这样的道德洁癖。然而意大利警方正逐渐得出一个结论：过去十年间，这个情节的现实版可能真的在意大利上演了。该国各黑手党势力似乎联手把芬太尼挡在了自己的地盘之外。
The theory could help explain Italy’s strangely low rate of fentanyl overdoses. In 2024 the synthetic opiate, which is about 100 times stronger than morphine, was detected in just two fatal intoxications in Italy.(2024年，这种效力约为吗啡100倍的合成阿片类药物，在意大利仅被检出与两例致命中毒有关。) Germany had 95; America had almost 48,000. That cannot be explained by Italy’s overall drug consumption levels. Some 2.1% of young Italian adults use cocaine in a given year(在某一年内), according to European figures, compared with 2.2% in Germany. Its estimated rate of high-risk opioid(阿片类药物) use is roughly twice the German one.
这一推测或许有助于解释意大利芬太尼过量致死率为何低得离奇。2024年，这种合成阿片类药物——其效力约为吗啡的100倍——在意大利仅被检出与两例致命中毒有关。德国有95例，美国则接近4.8万例。这无法用意大利的整体毒品消费水平来解释。根据欧洲的统计数据，意大利每年约有2.1%的年轻成年人使用可卡因，德国为2.2%。而意大利的高风险阿片类药物使用率估计约为德国的两倍。
In 2024, with fentanyl starting to appear more often in Europe, Italy’s government unveiled(公布，揭晓) a plan to counter it. But Alfredo Mantovano, the top health-ministry official for drug policy, noted that the drug had not yet made much of an impact(产生很大影响) there. Police have made few significant seizures(查获，缴获) of fentanyl, says Nicola Gratteri, an anti-Mafia prosecutor(检察官). He concludes that mafias are staying away from(远离，不碰) the drug.
2024年，随着芬太尼在欧洲出现得越来越频繁，意大利政府公布了一项应对计划。但卫生部主管毒品政策的最高官员阿尔弗雷多·曼托瓦诺指出，这种毒品在意大利尚未造成多大影响。反黑手党检察官尼古拉·格拉特里表示，警方很少查获大量芬太尼。他由此断定，黑手党正对芬太尼敬而远之。