‘Deadly’: Alarming new China threat

A new deadly drug is on the rise in Australia and its origins can be traced back to illicit labs in China.

A deadly new drug many times stronger than heroin is on the rise and experts believe China is to blame.

Nitazenes, a synthetic opioid, have been recorded in Australia, the UK and USA after people overdosed on them.

One sample of the drug was found to be 43 times more potent than fentanyl, the drug that killed Prince.

Nitazenes were first recorded in Australia in 2022 with authorities in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and the ACT warning against the use of the drug.

Many people will have no idea that they have consumed nitazens until they are overdosing.

This is because dealers are cutting better known drugs with nitazenes so as to make their supply last longer.

Alarmingly the party drug ketamine, deemed relatively safe because it is difficult to overdose on, was found to contain nitazens in Melbourne.

The substance is also on the rise in NSW’s Central Coast where it has been found in batches of heroin.

In Queensland police put out an alert after nitazenes were found in counterfeit Xanax pills.

The drug has been found in batches of heroin, ketamine and illegal counterfeit pills.

New drug can cause fatal side effects

Side effects of nitazene use can include slow breathing, snoring, respiratory failure, loss of consciousness, drowsiness, skin turning blue or grey and death.

There is a drug that reverses the effects of nitazenes called naloxone.

But experts warn that almost double the dose of naloxone is needed if someone has consumed nitazenes compared to someone who had overdosed on fentanyl.

In the UK, 54 people have died in the past six months from taking nitazenes with the National Crime Agency (NCA) warning the number could be much higher as they await results from 40 other cases.

The organisation believes nitazenes are being produced in illegal labs in China and is often purchased on the dark web using cryptocurrency, the BBC reports.

The drug is then posted to the customer in whatever country they are in.

Some have speculated that the rise in nitazenes is a bid by organised criminals to fill the gap of heroin after the harvesting of opium poppies was banned in Afghanistan in April last year.

The production of opium, a key ingredient in heroin, has declined by 95 per cent following the ban.

Chinese labs linked to nitazene production

In the US, prosecutors have taken legal action against a Chinese company selling nitazenes, which allegedly used social media and websites to sell nitazenes to customers in United States, Europe, Asia and South America.

Labs in China have been found to be producing nitazenes before posting the chemical overseas.

It came after a man in Florida was caught paying for nitazenes using Bitcoin so he could stretch out his supplies of heroin and fentanyl.

Unusually, prosecutors indicted a Chinese chemical sales company and an employee of that company.

The case is one of the first criminal prosecutions to target an overseas source of nitazenes.

China and Mexico are the main sources of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked directly into the United States.

Alex J. Krotulski, the associate director of toxicology and chemistry services at the Center for Forensic Science Research & Education, told the Washington Post that nitazenes were being modified in labs in China.

Nitazenes were developed by researchers Switzerland in the 1950s but they were never approved for wider use.

“This is all new, labs in China creating these drugs,” Krotulski said.

“They know how to create them because the blueprints are out there [online], but they’re creating new modifications, new drugs that sort of skirt around these national and international laws but still retain those opioid-like effects that people are interested in.”

Originally published as ‘Deadly’: Alarming new China threat