The 'Franken-麻薬' that is flooding Britain and 殺人，大当り people in their droves. It's 300 times stronger than ヘロイン and 20 times as potent as fentanyl - here's why 専門家s are worried

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When scientists at Ciba 製薬のs in the スイスの city of Basel developed nitazenes in the 1950s, they had high hopes for the 商業の success of their 過激な new 製品.

A synthetic opioid or 最高の-strength painkiller, it was designed to be an 代案／選択肢 to morphine, the 麻薬 that then 支配するd the market in 苦痛 救済 for 癌 患者s and people 回復するing from 外科.

But the 医療の regulators had other ideas. Appalled at the incredible potency of nitazenes - and the obvious danger that any 患者s 定める／命ずるd them would 速く become （麻薬）常用者d - they 封鎖するd the 麻薬’s 解放（する）.

And there the story of a 構内／化合物 という評判の to be 300 times stronger than ヘロイン might have ended.

急速な／放蕩な 今後 70 years or so, however, and nitazenes are 支援する. Made in 内密の labs by 化学者／薬剤師s who have trawled historical 研究 to 地雷 the work of 開拓するing scientists, they are now ますます 利用できる on the 黒人／ボイコット market. Many of these labs are in 中国, and the 麻薬s are so powerful that they have been 愛称d 'Frankenstein' opioids.

This is a terrifying 開発, because nitazenes are 20 times stronger than fentanyl, another powerful synthetic opioid which in 2022 alone killed 75,000 people in America.

Just this week, Luke D'Wit was 罪人／有罪を宣告するd of 殺人ing an Essex couple in their 60s by lacing their prescription 医薬 with deadly 量s of fentanyl. 接近 to nitazenes 提起する／ポーズをとるs even greater dangers.

Nitazenes (pictured) are 20 times stronger than fentanyl, another powerful synthetic opioid which in 2022 alone killed 75,000 people in America

This week?Luke D'Wit was 罪人／有罪を宣告するd of 殺人ing an Essex couple in their 60s by lacing their prescription 医薬 with deadly 量s of fentanyl. 接近 to nitazenes 提起する／ポーズをとるs even greater dangers

On Wednesday, the 政府 行為／法令／行動するd to 戦闘 the 天罰（を下す） of such 麻薬s by introducing 法律制定 to make 14 nitazenes Class A 麻薬s under the Misuse of 麻薬s 行為／法令／行動する.

‘Placing these 有毒な 麻薬s under the strictest 支配（する）／統制するs sends a （疑いを）晴らす message that the consequences for peddling them will be 厳しい,’ said Home 長官 James Cleverly.

More than 100 deaths have been linked to nitazenes since last summer, によれば the 国家の 罪，犯罪 機関 (NCA), and some doctors believe the 当局 have been slow to wake up to the 規模 of the 可能性のある 脅し.

Unscrupulous 違法な 売買業者s mix the cheap opioid with other 麻薬s such as ヘロイン, alprazolam (Xanax) and even the 苦悩 医薬 diazepam (Valium).

British 当局 were 警報d to the 麻薬’s arrival in July 2021 when an 無名の 18-year-old was 設立する by his mother unconscious and breathing ひどく at home in the West Midlands.

She called an 救急車 and began CPR, which kept her son alive long enough for an 救急車 乗組員 to 治める the opioid antidote naloxone, which 速く stops the 潜在的に 致命的な 影響s of the 麻薬. He was subsequently put on a ventilator and 辛うじて 生き残るd.

The boy's 事例／患者 was 調査／捜査するd by Dr 示す Pucci, a 臨床の pharmacologist at University Hospitals Birmingham 信用, who 設立するd that the 十代の少年少女 had taken a 実体 that 含むd ‘N-pyrrolidino etonitazene’, a form of nitazene.

研究員s have 比較して little info rmation on how the human 団体／死体 反応するs to nitazenes because the 麻薬s have never gone through 臨床の 裁判，公判s. But as 実験（する）s have shown they can be 1,000 times more powerful than morphine, they are 明確に horrifyingly potent.

‘It was only the quick thinking of his mother that saved him,’ Dr Pucci said of the 18-year-old’s 生き残り at the time. ‘He went into respiratory and cardiac 逮捕（する）, so is very lucky to be alive.’

Many others 港／避難所’t been as fortunate. Between June last year and February 22 this year, there were 76 deaths associated with nitazenes in England, 17 in Scotland and eight in むちの跡s. These 含むd 20 in the West Midlands, 13 in Yorkshire and Humberside, 17 in the east Midlands and east of England, and six in London.

No 選び出す／独身 city has 苦しむd more from the nitazenes 危機 than Birmingham. Justin Varney, the city 会議’s director of public health, recently said that 麻薬 deaths in Birmingham last summer were 二塁打 the usual number.

の中で them were Clive Cooper, 38, a ヘロイン 使用者 with schizophrenia; Maria Green, who 苦しむd from bipolar disorder, anorexia and 不景気; Stephen Harrop, 36, who had taken ヘロイン laced with nitazene, as had Michael Iddles, 53.

Simeon McAnoy, 33, a window salesman 設立する unresponsive by paramedics in October. His mother Jackie (権利) says?nitazenes were 設立する in his system

James Simmons, 38, a labourer, was 設立する dead on June 6. In July, Wayne Purcell, a roofer, died in the same 所有物／資産／財産 after 注入するing nitazene. And Armstrong Tabrey, 27, was 設立する in cardiac 逮捕（する） in the 回廊（地帯） of 株d 住宅 in Erdington.

There was also Simeon McAnoy, 33, a window salesman 設立する unresponsive by paramedics in October. The 公式の／役人 原因（となる） of his death has yet to be 決定するd by an 検死, but his mother, Jackie, has said that the 検死官 told her nitazenes were 設立する in his system.

One of the earliest British 犠牲者s was Cerys Clark, 19, from Middlesbrough. She 苦しむd from chronic 支援する 苦痛 原因（となる）d by scoliosis, a curvature of the spine, and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a rare 条件 that 原因（となる）s 苦痛 in 共同のs which can be dislocated easily.

Cerys was 用心深い and responsible, having taken prescription painkillers her entire life. So when she was visiting an 知識 in Manchester in August 2021 and ran out of her normal 医薬, her mum believes she would not have taken unprescribed pills given to her by the friend - even though she was desperate.

‘But somehow, two 偽造の 麻薬s got into her system ? 偽の Xanax [a tranquiliser] and 偽の OxyContin [a US synthetic opioid and painkiller] ? and they led to her death,’ says her mum, Lyndsey, who is a nurse.

The 偽の Xanax 含む／封じ込めるd a powerful synthetic benzodiazepine called flualprazolam, while the 偽の OxyContin was laced with N-Pyrrolidino etonitazene - t he same 実体 that nearly （人命などを）奪う，主張するd the life of the 18-year-old in the West Midlands.

‘There is no way Cerys would have taken something like that deliberately ? she’d have had no 寛容 to such powerful 麻薬s,’ says Lyndsey. ‘They would have been too much for her.’

She 追加するs: ‘I remember once, Cerys even went into a panic when she realised that she had taken a 苦痛 med that was わずかに out of date. That’s how sensible she was.’

Lyndsey 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うs Cerys was 治めるd the 麻薬s without her knowledge after later finding out that her male 知識 had been buying opioids online from the Czech 共和国. These 薬／医学s appear to have been adulterated.

‘I had been terrified [about] Cerys before she died, and had called her over and over again before 結局 he answered her phone,’ says Lyndsey. ‘He sounded off his 長，率いる and was laughing. He said Cerys was asleep and he couldn’t wake her up. I told him to call an 救急車 but it was 40 minutes before he did.

One of the earliest British 犠牲者s was Cerys Clark, 19, from Middlesbrough

Her mother 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うs Cerys was 治めるd the 麻薬s without her knowledge by a male 知識 who had been buying opioids online from the Czech 共和国

‘I don’t feel the police took the 事例／患者 本気で and I feel I never got 司法（官） for Cerys’s death, either from the people who made the pills or the man who gave them to her. Buying 麻薬s online is dangerous and 治めるing them to someone with a low 寛容 to opioids is irresponsible ? you can never know 正確に／まさに what’s in them or how strong they are.’

The man died of an overdose in the same flat four months later. ‘He was under 調査, but Greater Manchester police did not chase toxicology results, re-interview him or challenge his 多重の 見解／翻訳／版s of events,’ says Lyndsey. ‘They did nothing to その上の the 調査 ? they didn’t even find out why he had Cerys's パスポート locked in his 安全な.’

Greater Man chester police said: ‘A man was 逮捕（する）d in 関係 with [Cerys’s] death and was subsequently 保釈（金）d while 調査s continued to 決定する if a 犯罪の offence had been committed in relation to the death. The 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う died on December 23, 2021, and as a result, the 調査 into the 供給（する） of 麻薬s was stopped from a 犯罪の 視野.’

How is it that nitazenes have begun to flood the market in Britain?

専門家s are divided on the 問題／発行する but most point to a Taliban 厳重取締 on poppy 生産／産物 in Afghanistan, which 供給（する）s 95 per cent of the ヘロイン used in the UK.?

農業者s were banned from 工場／植物ing poppy seeds last year because of the 政権’s 関心s about the harmful 影響s of あへん - which is taken from the poppy seed 要約する／（宇宙ロケットの）カプセルs - and because it goes against their 宗教的な beliefs. There will be no 2024 収穫.

‘That will 完全に 乾燥した，日照りの up the ヘロイン 供給（する） 負かす／撃墜する to Africa and up through Europe over the next 12 months, which means the Chinese synthetic opioid market is going to 爆発する,’ says Donna Jones, 議長，司会を務める of the 協会 of Police and 罪，犯罪 Commissioners (APCC).

‘It’s already happening in America, and ヘロイン （麻薬）常用者s there are dying in their thousands because synthetic opioids like fentanyl are 50 times stronger than street ヘロイン. It is 悲劇の.’

Indeed, the NCA believes nitazenes are 存在 produced on 集まり in illicit labs in 中国 and often enter the UK in the '地位，任命する'.?

Tony D’Agostino, a 退役軍人 顧問 who trains outreach 麻薬s staff, 追加するs: ‘These opioids are cheap and strong, so if [ヘロイン] 不足s 軍隊 up prices, people are going to be driven more and more into using them or into buying opioids online. But they are so powerful, 潜在的に very dangerous and 完全に unregulated. We could be looking at a perfect 嵐／襲撃する.’

Another 推論する／理由 for the 外見 of nitazenes is a 2019 二国間の／相互の 協定 between Donald Trump’s 行政 and 中国 to 割れ目 負かす／撃墜する on the 生産／産物 of Chinese fentanyl, which has 原因（となる）d so many deaths in America.

地下組織の Chinese 研究室／実験室s, fearful of 存在 caught producing the 麻薬, turned to nitazenes instead.

But 生産／産物 is ますます moving here. In October last year, police （警察の）手入れ，急襲d 演説（する）／住所s in Waltham Forest and Enfield, north London, in which opioids were believed to be 存在 製造（する）d. Some 150,000 opioid pills 含む／封じ込めるing nitazenes were 回復するd, and 11 men were 逮捕（する）d.

So far, traces of nitazenes have been 設立する in ヘロイン, 偽の Xanax, diazepam and cannabis on British streets. Megan Jones, director of 麻薬 charity Cranstoun, says they could find their way into 興奮剤s such as コカイン, too.

‘犯罪のs 削減（する） a variety of 麻薬s on the same surfaces,’ she says. ‘If 砕くd コカイン were 過程d where nitazenes have been 追加するd to ヘロイン, that could be 特に dangerous. ヘロイン 使用者s would have built up a 寛容 to opioids, but 使用者s of コカイン, a 興奮剤, wouldn’t. That could be 致命的な.’

Cranstoun wants the 政府 to make 地元の 実験（する）ing 施設s 利用できる so 使用者s can check what's in their 麻薬s before they take them.

An 分析 of data 行為／行うd by retired GP Dr Judith Yates recently 設立する 83 separate instances of nitazenes in 麻薬 見本s from dozens of towns and cities across the UK since April 2021.

The Home Office said: ‘We are 高度に 警報 to the 脅し from synthetic 麻薬s and have already 設立するd a cross-政府 taskforce to co-ordinate our 返答 to the 危険 from synthetic opioids to the UK.’

The NCA has also 約束d to 増加する its 焦点（を合わせる） on nitazenes. 副 directo r Charles Yates told the Mail: ‘取り組むing Class A 麻薬s, and synthetic opioids, is a 優先 for the NCA, policing, 国境 軍隊, the Home Office and the Department of Health and Social Care.

‘The NCA, working closely with policing, 国境 軍隊 and other international partners is 確実にするing that all lines of enquiry are prioritised and vigorously 追求するd.’

While 14 nitazenes have been criminalised under the new legisation, Dr Judith Yates says a big problem remains. ‘It’s a bit like playing whack-a-mole because each time a nitazene is 分類するd like this, it can be tweaked and made into a 合法的に different 実体,’ she says.

The 恐れる now is that the high number of West Midlands fatalities 中止するs to be an exception, and becomes a precursor to a 全国的な 疫病／流行性の.

Along with many other 麻薬 専門家s, Dr Judith Yates is 深く，強烈に worried: ‘I was around during health 関心s when ヘロイン 攻撃する，衝突する the streets in the 1980s, with my 患者s getting 麻薬中毒の and me trying to keep them alive. Then 援助（する）s （機の）カム along, and then 割れ目, but the 脅し from nitazenes is far more serious than any of those. They have the 可能性のある to kill thousands of innocent people.'