Nitazenes, synthetic opioids, could create latest drug crisis as scientists rush to find how to detect them in drug supply
A new class of potentially deadly synthetic opioids is suddenly appearing around the globe, including in the US, and scientists are rushing to figure out how to detect it in the drug supply.
Within the last month, nitazenes were implicated in four overdose deaths in Manchester, England; they were detected in over 2,500 counterfeit oxycodone pills in Hamilton, Canada; and they were found for the first time in the Netherlands. The US Drug Enforcement Administration has warned about their appearance in Washington DC.
Nitazenes are a class of synthetic opioid first developed in the 1950s but never approved to go to market.
GREAT /s
Cops can’t even be in the same zip code with it or they pass out instantly.
Don’t tempt us with a good time
Why the duck bring that to market? Wouldn’t it make more sense to not kill most of your customers by accident on the first time they try it?
It won’t kill most of them the first time, just some. Health and wellness aren’t exactly the top priority for a lot of opioid addicts so it’s sort of effective marketing. If people are dying from it then it’s gotta be strong stuff.
Simply the stronger it is, the less you need to move, and the easier it is to smuggle.
Then you just cut it back to “standard” strength or attempt to do so. This is a big reason fentanyl displaced heroin, and why you see otherwise undesirable drugs like carfentanyl out there that are even stronger.
Vendors concerned about the long term outlook are generally discouraged by the possible jailtime. The ones we are left with tend to not give a shit about tomorrow.
Yeah, well… I haven’t seen this side I guess.
Just gotta make it expensive enough to balance that out :)
I’m not entirely sold on the idea. I guess I’ll just enjoy my organic, homegrown weed.
Im glad you arent. Would be weird and disturbing if you were.
Whoever made this needs to redirect their efforts to the energy sector.
I guess you have to be one special kind of asshole to be in that business to begin with, but you’d think they would at the very least understand that you don’t have customers if you kill them all…
fentanyl, from what I understand is quite useful in emergency rooms, I would imagine this might be similar.
Yeah absolutely! I kinda misunderstood/misread what was being said. I thought they were saying it’s being detected in drugs already
the strongest known nitazene, etonitazene, is “roughly 40 times more active than fentanyl
Which is already 100 times as powerful as morphine, which is already super strong.
*In animal models.
For isotonitazene, which is related to etonitazene, activity in animal models is 1000 times as potent as morphine, while in humans, it’s “only” 60 times as potent, according to Wikipedia.
The actual numbers for each I didn’t find, but I guess that’s because there were no human studies.
Isotonitazene is a benzimidazole-derived opioid analgesic drug related to etonitazene, which has been sold as a designer drug. It has only around half the potency of etonitazene in animal studies, but it is likely even less potent in humans as was seen with etonitazene (1000 times as potent as morphine in animal models yet only 60 times as potent in humans).
Finally!
