Nitazenes: The new synthetic opioids stronger than heroin that are being cut into drugs
Charlotte, not her real name, wanders back and forth with her empty coffee cup held out towards the tide of commuters coming through the barriers.
Rush hour at Whitechapel underground station is the best time of day for the small, frail, 23-year-old to earn enough change to pay for her next hit.
She’s agitated, but for the briefest moment agrees to talk. I ask if any symptoms from her drug use have changed recently. “I’ve got holes in my legs,” she says. “There’s no skin, just holes. It’s painful.”
Synthetic opioids seized by officers. Pic: Met Police
Her legs are bandaged. She says the strange bores in her flesh have only appeared in the last few months and is unsure why.
But drug charity workers are convinced this is a symptom of a terrifying evolution in the drug market – a growing prevalence of dangerous synthetic opioids being cut into drugs like heroin.
The deadliest, nitazenes, are the newest killer on the streets.
“I’m seeing people coughing up blood. I’m seeing people dying,” says crack cocaine user Rory, who we meet in Aldgate in East London.
“Any drug you are buying off the street you’re taking a risk. These people are in it for the money and the purer it is, the less they make – so they are putting other stuff in it.”
Crack cocaine user Rory
The opioid fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin and is the primary drug in North America, where synthetic opioids are estimated to have caused 75,000 deaths in the US last year.
Nitazenes have similar properties to fentanyl, but can be up to 300 times stronger than heroin. Only this week, several have been classified as Class A drugs.
First detected in the UK from a sample of white powder found in the back of a taxi in Wakefield in April 2021, nitazenes have since been found in heroin, cannabis, cocaine, in a vape and most prevalently in black market pills sold as the anti-anxiety drug diazepam.
‘Substantial risk of overdose, hospitalisation, and death’
In October, a police raid on a “sophisticated factory” in Waltham Forest recovered approximately 150,000 nitazene tablets, the largest-ever recovered stash of synthetic opioids. Eleven people were arrested.
Detective Superintendent Helen Rance, who is leading the investigation, said: “Synthetic opioids have been detected in batches of heroin found in London and across the UK; they substantially raise the risk of incredibly serious harm to the user and are believed to be linked to a number of deaths.”
Recently, the opioid is thought to have been cut into a batch of drugs in Dublin, causing 57 people to overdose within a few days.
Professor Eamon Keenan, from the Health Safety Executive, said: “These pose a substantial risk of overdose, hospitalisation, and death.”
Meg Jones, director of social justice charity Cranstoun, said: “We are seeing nitazenes pop up in pockets all over the UK and it is incredibly concerning.”
She added: “There are an increasing number of synthetic opioids being detected in drugs that people thought were very different. We need to see government action quickly on this, because we are sleepwalking into what I would deem to be a public health crisis, and we are not prepared for it in the UK at all.”
Action means more testing and provision of drugs that can counter the effects of opioid overdose.
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Outreach worker Abdirahim Hassan, founder of East London community group Coffee Afrik, agrees. He showed me a video of a young woman who appears to have overdosed. She is slumped unconscious on the pavement in Whitechapel.
Outreach worker Abdirahim Hassan
Her body is in the prayer position, her torso flat over her knees, her face pressed against the ground. “She’s just frozen. Her eyes are closed, and people are just walking past,” said Abdirahim. “She’s a young woman, maybe 24, somebody’s daughter.”
Abdirahim said a crackdown on heroin production by the Taliban has successfully stemmed the flow of heroin from Afghanistan which had previously provided 95% of the UK heroin market. That’s led to a boom in the easier to produce, more deadly synthetics.
“What it means is there’s a much higher risk of overdose and death,” he said. “But it’s a cheaper product and more potent so people are in greater crisis and there is not enough testing.”
Birmingham also saw a spike in the detection of nitazenes. Sky News was given access to a unique project in West Midlands police cells, run by the charity Cranstoun.
Steve Whitby is a drug and alcohol worker who visits suspects in their cells. The idea is that drug rehabilitation services reach out to offer support to addicts while they are in police custody.
Drug and alcohol worker Steve Whitby is interviewed by Farrell
On one cell visit, Steve warns an addict, who is also a suspected shoplifter, about the dangers of nitazenes. He told him: “So these are synthetic drugs that dealers are putting into heroin – but it’s causing lots of people to die from overdose.”
He told the man he shouldn’t take drugs alone and that he will leave a kit with his belongings which includes two syringes of naloxone, an antidote of opioid overdose. He explained the man will have to teach whoever is with him how to use it.
Naxolone is a treatment for people who have overdosed
This pilot in Birmingham is believed to be the first time naloxone has been given to addicts in custody, and the charity said this needs to become a national provision.
The Cranstoun programme in police custody suites is funded by the West Midlands police and crime commissioner.
“In essence, this saves more lives than any other intervention,” said Steve as he demonstrated how to inject the clear liquid into the side of the thigh.
He said sometimes it’s dispensed to the children of addicts so they can save their parents lives if they overdose.
As such a newcomer to the UK market and often concealed as something else, there is little data about the prevalence of nitazenes.
Pic: Met Police
The opioid is even more dangerous for those who have never taken it before
However, Wedinos, a service based in Wales where people can send in their drugs anonymously, to get them tested for what they contain, has started to increasingly detect it in other illicit drugs.
They only found nitazenes five times in 2021, but have discovered it 57 times so far this year. It was in what users thought was cannabis in Manchester and cannabis vape liquid in Portsmouth.
They’ve been found most often in what users thought were the black market versions of the anti-anxiety drug diazepam, and pain medication oxycodone, 21 times each.
They are even more dangerous to people who don’t already use opioids, and therefore have no tolerance.
The reported side effects include hallucinations, irregular heartbeat, chest pains, nosebleeds, vomiting, memory loss, aggression, and overdose.
Back on the streets of Whitechapel, another heroin addict, called Rebel, sits waiting for her methadone script outside a drug rehabilitation centre.
Drug user Rebel
She said heroin has changed. She hates the synthetics, describing them as a waste of money and said they don’t work, but she agrees that not knowing what she’s using makes life more dangerous. Health workers have run urine tests and warned her of other substances cut into her drugs.
“They text me and tell me something is cut in it – it’s really bad.” Rebel becomes emotional talking about the impact of her addiction. “I’m 60 now. I don’t want to die a junkie,” she said.
This week, 15 new synthetic opioids were categorised as Class A drugs by the government, but that doesn’t make them any easier for drug users to detect.
A dangerous market has become more deadly. Users like Rebel are rolling the dice every day.
Oasis have reunited on stage for the first time in almost 16 years – with brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher sharing a high five and the briefest of hugs as they closed a performance that for fans was more than worth the wait.
After the split in 2009, for many years Noel said he would never go back – and for a long time, as the brothers exchanged insults through separate interviews (and on social media, for Liam), it seemed pretty unlikely to ever happen.
But now, here they are. As they walked out on stage at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, all eyes were on the Gallaghers for a sense of their relationship – dare we say it, friendship? – now after all these years.
There was no reference to their fall-out or making up, but the gestures were there – lifting hands together as they walked out for the first time.
The headline “OASIS REUNITED” was shown on stage at the gig. Pic: PA
Fans at the Oasis gig. Pic: PA
Headlines and tweets of speculation and then confirmation of the reunion filled the screens as the show started. “This is happening,” said one, repeatedly.
In the end, it was all about the music.
Liam has received criticism in the past for his voice not being what it once was during his solo or Beady Eye performances, but back on stage with his brother tonight he delivered exactly what fans would have hoped for – a raw, steely-eyed performance, snarling vocals, and the swagger that makes him arguably the greatest frontman of his day.
This was Oasis sounding almost as good as they ever have.
Fans sang along and held up their phones to film as Oasis performed. Pic: PA
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Oasis: ‘It’s good to be back’
They opened with Hello, because of course, “it’s good to be back”. And then Acquiesce, and those lyrics: “Because we need each other/ We believe in one another.”
The song is said to be about friendship in the wider sense, rather than their brotherly bond and sibling rivalry, but you can’t help but feel like it means something here.
Over two hours, they played favourite after favourite – including Morning Glory, Some Might Say, Cigarettes & Alcohol, Supersonic and Roll With It.
Liam Gallagher as Oasis takes to the stage in Cardiff. Pic: PA
In the mid-section, Liam takes his break for Noel to sing Talk Tonight, Half The World Away and Little By Little; the tempo slows but there is by no means a lull, with the fans singing all his words back to him.
Liam returns for hits including Stand By Me, Slide Away, Whatever and Live Forever, before sending the crowd wild (or even wilder) with Rock And Roll Star.
Noel Gallagher performing on stage. Pic: PA
An Oasis fan is pointing at the stage during the gig. Pic: PA
When the reunion announcement was made last summer, it quickly became overshadowed by the controversy of dynamic pricing causing prices to rocket. As he has done on X before, Liam addressed the issue on stage with a joke.
“Was it worth the £4,000 you paid for the ticket?” he shouted at one point. “Yeah,” the crowd shouts back; seemingly all is forgiven.
After Rock And Roll Star, the dream that very quickly became a reality for this band, Noel introduced the rest of the group, calling Bonehead a “legend”.
Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs of Oasis. Pic: PA
Liam Gallagher carried a tambourine in his mouth during the concert. Pic: PA
Then he acknowledges all their young fans, some who maybe weren’t even born when they split. “This one is for all the people in their 20s who’ve never seen us before, who’ve kept this shit going,” he says before the encore starts with The Masterplan.
Noel follows with Don’t Look Back In Anger, and the screens fill with Manchester bees in reference to the arena bombing and how the song became the sound of hope and defiance for the city afterwards.
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‘I’d have paid £10,000 to see them’
Two fans sat on their friends’ shoulders as Oasis performed. Pic: PA
During Wonderwall, there’s a nice touch as Liam sings to the crowd: “There are many things I would like to say to you, but I don’t speak Welsh.”
It is at the end of Champagne Supernova, which closes the set, that it happens; Noel puts down his guitar, and they come together for a high-five and a back-slap, a blink-and-you’d miss it hug.
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“Right then, beautiful people, this is it,” Liam had told the crowd as he introduced the song just a few minutes earlier. “Nice one for putting up with us over the years.”
From the roar of the audience, it’s safe to say most people here would agree it’s been worth it.
UK
Met Police release footage as more than 1,000 arrests made using live facial recognition technology
More than 1,000 criminals, including a paedophile found with a six-year-old girl, have been arrested by the Metropolitan Police using live facial recognition (LFR) cameras.
David Cheneler, 73, was among 93 registered sex offenders held by Met officers using the controversial technology since the start of last year.
He was discovered with the girl after he was identified by a camera on a police van in Camberwell, south London, in January.
Cheneler, from Lewisham, was jailed for two years in May after admitting breaching his sexual harm prevention order by being with a child under the age of 14.
The Met said a total of 1,035 arrests have been made using live facial recognition technology – where live footage is recorded of people as they walk past, capturing their faces, which are then compared against a database of wanted offenders.
If a match is determined, the system creates an alert which is assessed by an officer, who may decide to speak to the person.
They include more than 100 people alleged to have been involved in serious violence against women and girls (VAWG) offences such as strangulation, stalking, domestic abuse, and rape.
Adenola Akindutire admitted charges including robbery. Pic: Met Police
Adenola Akindutire was stopped during an operation in Stratford and arrested over the machete robbery of a Rolex watch, which left the victim with life-changing injuries after the attack in Hayes, west London.
Police said the 22-year-old, who was linked to a similar incident and had been released on bail, was in possession of a false passport and could have evaded arrest if it wasn’t for the technology.
Akindutire, of no fixed address, admitted charges including robbery, attempted robbery, grievous bodily harm, possession of a false identity document and two counts of possession of a bladed article and faces sentencing at Isleworth Crown Court.
Darren Dubarry was stopped on his bike. Pic: Met Police
Dubarry was caught with stolen designer clothes. Pic: Met Police
Darren Dubarry, 50, was already wanted for theft when he was caught with stolen designer clothing in Dalston, east London, after riding past an LFR camera on his bike.
The 50-year-old, from Stratford, east London, was fined after pleading guilty to handling stolen goods.
Lindsey Chiswick, the Met’s LFR lead, hailed the 1,000 arrest milestone as “a demonstration of how cutting-edge technology can make London safer by removing dangerous offenders from our streets”.
“Live Facial Recognition is a powerful tool, which is helping us deliver justice for victims, including those who have been subjected to horrendous offences, such as rape and serious assault,” she said.
“It is not only saving our officers’ valuable time but delivering faster, more accurate results to catch criminals – helping us be more efficient than ever before.”
The Met say “robust safeguards” are in place, which ensure no biometric data is retained from anyone who walks past an LFR camera who isn’t wanted by police.
Almost 2 million faces scanned
But human rights group Liberty is calling for new laws to be introduced to govern how police forces use the technology after Liberty Investigates found almost 1.9 million faces were scanned by the Met between January 2022 and March this year.
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Charlie Whelton, Liberty policy and campaigns officer, said: “We all want to feel safe in our communities, but technology is advancing quickly, and we need to make sure that our laws keep up.
“Any tech which has the potential to infringe on our rights in the way scanning and identifying millions of people does needs to have robust safeguards around its use to protect us all from abuse of power as we go about our daily lives.
“There is currently no overarching law governing police use of facial recognition in the UK, and we shouldn’t leave police forces to come up with these frameworks on their own.
“Almost two million faces have been scanned in London before Parliament has even decided what the laws should be.
“We need to catch up with other countries, and the law needs to catch up with the use. Parliament must legislate now and ensure that safeguards are in place to protect people’s rights where the police use this technology.”
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