Free Republic

A group of novel synthetic opioids emerging in illicit drugs in the United States may be more powerful than fentanyl, 1,000 times more potent than morphine, and may even require more doses of the medication naloxone to reverse an overdose, a new study suggests. Nitazenes are a synthetic opioid, like fentanyl, although the two drugs are not structurally related. In the small study published Tuesday in the journal JAMA Network Open most of the patients who overdosed on nitazenes received two or more doses of the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone, whereas most patients who overdosed on fentanyl received only...

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency Washington Division is raising awareness about nitazenes, a dangerous class of drugs they are seeing emerge in the region. Nitazines are being sourced from China and being mixed into other drugs, the DEA says. Isotonitazene, also known as nitazene or "ISO,” is a synthetic opioid first identified around 2019. Photo courtesy of U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency Nitazenes: You've probably never heard of these highly toxic drugs, and neither have many Americans who abuse opioid street drugs. That lack of awareness could prove deadly, experts warn, because nitazenes are increasingly being added into heroin and street...

Forensic analysts have identified a new and highly potent family of synthetic opioids in the District’s illicit drug supply, a worrisome discovery in a city already struggling with a wave of fatal overdoses that shows no signs of abating. The opioids, found on used syringes examined by scientists at the D.C. Department of Forensic Sciences in September and October, are called protonitazene and isotonitazene, respectively. Experts estimate that each is at least several times more powerful than fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that has displaced heroin in many parts of the United States and is now responsible for the majority of...