They are 500 times more powerful than morphine.
“New synthetic opioids are currently circulating in France“, warns the National Medicines Agency (ANSM) in a communicated July 8. Opioids are substances used primarily as painkillers, such as morphine or fentanyl, but they can be diverted from their intended use and marketed on drug markets. The new opioids that worry the French health authorities come in the form of powder, tablets, a liquid contained in sprays (for nasal instillation) or in e-liquids. They are used alone or combined with other psychoactive substances (heroin, cocaine, ketamine) and sometimes ingested or inhaled without the users’ knowledge.
Until “500 times more powerful than morphine” And “20 times more than Fentanyl (which is wreaking havoc in the United States, editor’s note), according to a report of June 25 published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), these new products “are particularly dangerous because they are more powerful than other opioids, with a high risk of potentially fatal overdose, even at low doses. The risk of addiction associated with these products is also greater.” In France, they appeared in spring 2023, involved in clusters of serious poisonings in Occitanie and on Reunion Island (2 deaths). In England and Eastern Europe, several dozen deaths linked to these substances have been reported since 2023.
In view of the risks and in a context where summer population movements will be very significant in France (the Olympic Games are approaching), the health authorities have decided to include these compounds on the list of narcotics. In concrete terms, this means that production, sale and use are prohibited from Tuesday, July 9, 2024.
As with other opioids, these substances called “nitazenes” or “benzimidazole derivatives” can cause poisoning and overdoses which combine several warning signs which can occur immediately or several hours after taking them:
- Disturbances of consciousness
- Nausea
- Difficulty breathing normally (respiratory depression)
- The constricting pupil (miosis)
- A higher risk of dependence with a need to increase doses to obtain the same desired effects.
- Drowsiness that can lead to coma
Nitazenes were created in the late 1950s as painkillers but were too risky to be marketed by health authorities. They reappeared on the recreational drug market in 2019-2020 in the United States, Canada and Europe. Today, they come mainly from China and “have recently emerged in high-income countries, causing an increase in overdose deaths”continues the UNODC in its report, expressing concern that the “Heroin users turn to more powerful synthetic opioids“To justify this growing expansion, an expert, Angela Me, mentioned during a press briefing a probable link with “the situation in Afghanistan”where opium production has fallen since the Taliban banned poppy cultivation.