Free Republic

As authorities clamp down on fentanyl distribution and the amount of heroin produced in Afghanistan decreases under the Taliban, criminal enterprises have turned to a deadly alternative. Some health agencies in Europe are reporting a rise in deaths and overdoses from a type of synthetic opioid that can reportedly be hundreds of times stronger than heroin and up to forty times stronger than fentanyl. 2-Benzyl Benzimidazole opioids, commonly known as nitazines, are a class of synthetic compound developed in the 1950s as painkillers, but which were never approved for use as medicines. Because of their potency, compared with natural opioids...

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency Washington Division is raising awareness about nitazenes, a dangerous class of drugs they are seeing emerge in the region. Nitazines are being sourced from China and being mixed into other drugs, the DEA says. Isotonitazene, also known as nitazene or "ISO,” is a synthetic opioid first identified around 2019. Photo courtesy of U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency Nitazenes: You've probably never heard of these highly toxic drugs, and neither have many Americans who abuse opioid street drugs. That lack of awareness could prove deadly, experts warn, because nitazenes are increasingly being added into heroin and street...