The fentanyl substitute is here: nitazenes. They can be 10 times more potent.

If at the end of 2023 all the alarms were going off about the health crisis caused in the United States by the abusive use of fentanyl, the situation could worsen even further with the emergence of another family of synthetic opioids: nitazenes.

This doesn’t come as a complete surprise. In the 1970s, chemist Alexander Shulgin was already warning about the potential abuse of a family of compounds known as benzimidazoles. Half a century later, his words have proven prophetic: nitazenes, synthetic opioids with a benzimidazole nucleus, have emerged as one of the most dangerous classes of new psychoactive substances, causing a growing number of poisonings and deaths.

Although some sources report 400 fatal poisonings related to these substances in the United Kingdom, the lack of a specific analytical method in the early stages of their emergence makes this figure simply speculative.