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The UN Alerts About New, Strong Synthetic Opioids

• By Rich Health News Desk
• October 02, 2024

A class of synthetic opioids known as nitazenes, which have the potential to be much more dangerous than fentanyl, has recently surfaced in a number of wealthy nations. 

 

 The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), based in Vienna, stated in a news release that "nitazenes—a group of synthetic opioids which can be even more potent than fentanyl—have recently emerged in several high-income countries, resulting in an increase in overdose deaths."

 

The medication had been discovered in Belgium, Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia, Britain, and the United States, according to its yearly report.

 

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), among other organizations, has also issued warnings over the advent of nitazenes.

 

Following the Taliban's ban on the drug in Afghanistan, the world's largest producer, opium output worldwide decreased by 74% in 2023, according to the UNODC.

 

The UNODC warned that "heroin users may switch to other opioids," with those posing "significant risks to health," and that "the purity of heroin on the market is expected to decline."

 

Although there is currently no shortage of heroin, according to UNODC principal researcher Angela Me, some overdose deaths are believed to have included the mixing of nitazenes, which are primarily from China, with heroin.

 

Booming Cocaine

According to Me, the worldwide cocaine supply is expected to reach a record high of almost 2,700 tonnes in 2022, up 20% from the previous year. In the meanwhile, the cocaine market "is still booming."

 

It's spreading not just in the US and Western and Central Europe, the two major markets, but also, for instance, in Africa, where trafficking is becoming more common, she said.

 

The area under cultivation of coca bush, which is primarily in the Americas' Andes, increased by 12% to 355,000 hectares worldwide between 2021 and 2022.

 

Due in part to population increase, the UNODC reported that in 2022, almost 292 million individuals, or 1 in 18 of the world's population, used drugs, which is 20% more than it was ten years prior.

 

With an anticipated 228 million users globally in 2022, cannabis continued to be the most widely used drug.

 

According to UNODC, this was followed by opioids (60 million), amphetamine-type stimulants (30 million), cocaine (23 million), and "ecstasy" (20 million).

 

The agency stated that the legalization of cannabis in numerous US states "appears to have accelerated harmful use of the drug and led to a diversification in cannabis products."