A new type of opioid is killing people in the United States, Europe and Australia

American and European Authorities are fighting a new enemy in the war against opioids. Nitazines are a class of synthetic drugs that are 40 times more powerful than fentanyl and have caused hundreds of confirmed deaths worldwide. Europe and we Since it appeared on the radar of law enforcement agencies in 2019. However, this number is likely a significant underestimate.

It was nitazine It was first manufactured in the 1950s By CIBA Aktiengesellschaft, an Austrian chemical company, has created several chemically related molecules with different levels of pain-relieving potency. However, their use as pain relievers has never been successful. In addition to being highly addictive, nitazines can cause respiratory depression, a serious condition in which breathing becomes too shallow to replenish oxygen in the blood. Therefore, these drugs were largely unheard of for decades until they appeared on the illicit market.

It’s difficult to say exactly when nitazines began being commonly sold as a street drug — their identification requires specific tests that are not routinely performed — but law enforcement agencies began noticing them about six years ago. And there was a shipment of one type of these synthetic molecules – isotonitazine – It was intercepted In the American Midwest in 2019, and Deaths It began to be reported in both the United States and Europe during the following years.

Drug makers and dealers are likely attracted to nitazine because of its effectiveness and because it has effects similar to well-known drugs such as heroin. This makes them useful materials for dealers, as they can use them to cut through other opioids to make their drugs go further, increasing the volume they can sell. This poses serious risks to users, who are often unaware of what they are actually taking, increasing the risk of overdose.

Another attractive feature of nitazine is that the authorities have forgotten about it: the drug that receives less attention, as well as its uncertain legal status, is easier to trade. It is believed that illegal laboratories began manufacturing nitazine using historical chemical formulas found in pharmacology textbooks, as well as developing new formulas.

In the United States, nitazine is now widespread throughout much of the country and is manufactured in Mexico or within the country in illegal laboratories whose raw materials are supplied by Asian traders. Synthetic opioids are the most problematic drugs in the United States About 70 percent Of the 105,000 overdose deaths recorded in 2023, of these, fentanyl is the most prevalent. But nitazine, although still a minority drug, is quickly becoming more popular.

For its part, Europe has always been a market dominated by heroin, with almost all of it coming from Afghanistan. However, when the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in 2021, they banned opium poppy cultivation, thus cutting off the source of raw materials used in the production of heroin destined for Europe. As opium stocks run out, there could be Heroin shortage The European market can be filled with synthetic opioids.