Alert to a drug that’s stronger than fentanyl

“Fentanyl fueled the worst drug crisis the West has ever seen,” says The Wall Street Journal. “Now, an even more dangerous drug is wreaking havoc faster than authorities can keep up.”

These synthetic opioids, called nitazenes, most of which originate in China, are so strong that even trace amounts can cause a fatal overdose. The most common street nitazenes are about 50 to 250 times as potent as heroin, or up to five times the strength of fentanyl, the WSJ says.

They’ve been found mixed into heroin and recreational drugs, counterfeit painkillers and antianxiety medications.

While most known overdoses affect heroin users, nitazenes also have been found in party drugs such as cocaine, ketamine and ecstasy, in illegal nasal sprays and vapes, and detected in benzodiazepines like Xanax and Valium. In May, two young Londoners died after taking what authorities think was oxycodone laced with nitazenes upon returning home from a nightclub. 

Nitazenes appeared in drug seizures in Europe and the United States starting in 2019, and began spreading quickly in Europe in 2023, their high potency leaving a trail of fatal overdoses even among seasoned drug users, the WSJ says. 

Since the Afghan Taliban banned in 2022 the cultivation of poppies, which supplied about 90 percent of the world’s heroin, experts have warned that a heroin shortage could lead gangs to cut the drug with other, more dangerous substances such as nitazenes.

In the United States, reporting on nitazenes is sparse and relies on self-reporting. Many overdose toxicology tests don’t include nitazenes. 

People are saving their friends’ lives by carrying the antidote naloxone.