The use of Nitagen, a group of drugs more powerful than fentanyl, is spreading across Europe and North America, the UN drug agency has warned.
Synthetic opioids have been found in the UK, US, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Belgium and Canada, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its latest World Drug Report., Out.
The number of fatal overdoses involving Nitagen has also increased.
The super-strong drug, which comes in many varieties, is much more powerful than heroin. Their emergence has prompted urgent warnings from health agencies around the world.
This follows a ban on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, which saw opium production fall by 95% in 2022.
The UNODC report said it was too early to know what long-term effects this could have on factors such as heroin purity, but it said it could lead to “an increase in overdoses” as heroin users switch to other opioids.
A BBC investigation earlier this year found that nitazene was being smuggled into the UK in dog food and catering supplies, and sold on social media.
The UK has classified Nitazene as a Class A drug and anyone manufacturing or supplying it could face a life sentence. But experts say the government has been too slow to take action to remove drugs from the streets.
Fentanyl, another synthetic opioid, is 50 times more powerful than heroin. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 100,000 people will die in the United States in 2022 due to highly publicized infectious diseases.
UNODC's report states that “illegally manufactured fentanyl” is still behind “an unprecedented number of overdose deaths” and that the number “may be decreasing.”
According to the report, global drug use has increased 20% over the past decade, reaching 292 million users by 2022.
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