For subscribers
A dangerous new class of synthetic opioid is spreading
Some nitazenes are far more potent than fentanyl.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The new class of drug, nitazenes, have been detected everywhere, from Freetown in Sierra Leone to Sydney in Australia.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: PEXELS
The Economist
Follow topic:
On a morning in November 2023, Dr Eamon Keenan, a psychiatrist who runs addiction services at Ireland’s state-funded healthcare provider, received a worrying phone call. “People in homeless accommodation and hospitals are collapsing,” he recalls being told. It was the start of a bleak few weeks.
In Dublin and Cork, the country’s biggest cities, 77 people would end up overdosing. The initial suspect was dodgy heroin, but laboratory analysis revealed a dangerous new class of drugs – nitazenes. Since then, these have been detected everywhere, from Freetown in Sierra Leone to Sydney in Australia.
