Police at the highest levels are cracking down on deadly drugs laced with the synthetic opioid Nitazene, which have already claimed at least 20 lives in Australia.
Nitazenes are a group of synthetic opioids that consist of several different types of drugs, including protonitazene and methonitazene.
The drug is often mixed with other substances, such as MDMA, ketamine, cocaine and methamphetamine, leaving users unaware of their risks.
Australian Federal Police Commander Paula Hudson urged everyone to be aware of the dangers of taking Nitazenes, which is 1,000 times more potent than morphine.
“Nitazenes has the authorities very, very concerned, and we want to get the message out to the community that what they are taking may not be what they think it is,” Hudson told 60 Minutes on Sunday.
‘Nitazene is on the streets right now, so be very careful. Know the symptoms of an overdose and be prepared.’
The chilling warning comes as Victoria Police continue their investigation into the deaths of four people in Broadmeadows, Melbourne, last month.
Australian Federal Police Commander Paula Hudson (pictured) urged everyone to be aware of the dangers of consuming nitazenes.
Authorities have expressed concern that the deadly opioid Nitazene may be reaching Australian streets. Photo provided by the Australian Federal Police.
The bodies of Michael Hodgkinson, 32, and Abdul El Sayed, 17, were found along with those of a 37-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman following a suspected drug overdose.
The deaths are still being treated as non-suspicious.
Victoria Police said preliminary tests confirmed the presence of a synthetic opioid in the systems of all four people.
However, no fentanyl was detected during initial tests, police confirmed.
With 20 deaths and dozens of overdoses already reported in Australia, health authorities and experts are now on high alert over Nitazene.
The medical director of the Unified Medically Supervised Injecting Centre, Dr Marianne Jauncey, told the Herald Sun she was concerned that the synthetic opioid detected in the Broadmeadows deaths was a form of Nitazene.
Dr Jauncey said it was imperative that drug testing services were made more accessible.
“I think it’s scary that we don’t know where to look next,” she said.
‘At the moment, we won’t know unless people continue to overdose or die.
‘Without things like drug testing, it’s hard to know what’s going on.
“If you don’t look, you won’t find it. We have to look harder. We have to step up our vigilance.”
Uniting Medically Supervised Injecting Centre’s medical director Dr Marianne Jauncey (pictured) wants drug testing services to be more accessible
Nitazenes are becoming a growing problem in Australia
Ms Hudson said the rise in Nitazenes across the community was not surprising, after the AFP intercepted 37 packages containing the synthetic opioid in postal shipments over the past year.
He said four kilos were found in Melbourne during a search warrant last week.
“This is very concerning to us,” Ms Hudson said.
‘What the public needs to know is that two milligrams can be lethal.
‘So even if we can seize 30 grams, that would be enough for 25,000 lethal doses.’
However, experts believe that nitazenes are produced in China, where it was previously legal to manufacture the drug.
The Chinese government has since vowed to crack down on production of the drug.
Police were called to Broadmeadows in June after four bodies were found from suspected drug overdoses.
“Chinese authorities will be able to effectively enforce the regulation of nitazenes due to the fact that they are now scheduled as controlled substances,” said Commissioner Hudson.
“This will certainly give us much greater leverage offshore to work to prevent nitazenes from flowing into Australia.”
Meanwhile, Victoria’s Department of Health issued an alert for the synthetic opioid Protonitazene last week.
“Serious damage has recently occurred in Melbourne associated with a white powder sold as cocaine containing protonitazene,” the alert states.
‘The product appears to produce strong adverse effects such as loss of consciousness, respiratory depression and potentially fatal hypoxia (insufficient oxygen for normal functioning).’
