Future Retirement Success
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks

Future Retirement Success

Investing

Unfortunately, as I Warned Lawmakers in March, We May Soon Be Talking About the Nitazene Crisis

by December 28, 2023
December 28, 2023
Unfortunately, as I Warned Lawmakers in March, We May Soon Be Talking About the Nitazene Crisis

Jeffrey A. Singer

I wrote here in 2020 and here in 2022, and I warned lawmakers in oral testimony here last March, nitazenes might soon displace illicit fentanyl/​xylazine combinations—which are fast displacing illicit fentanyl and its analogs—as the next big drug crisis. Now, a report in the UK Independent suggests my premonition is coming true.

Potent synthetic opioids known as nitazenes—some of which are 500 times stronger than morphine— have been detected in at least 20 postcodes around the UK since September, in a worrying surge in availability, The Independent can reveal.

In the late 1950s, the Swiss pharmaceutical company CIBA created nitazenes to treat pain. This class of synthetic opioids is more potent than fentanyl. The company never brought it to market. However, the World Health Organization reported that isotonitazene was found in toxicology studies in several European countries and the UK beginning in 2019. In September 2022, the Tennessee Department of Health reported that overdose deaths from nitazenes had increased four‐​fold between 2019 and 2021. Drug users in this country refer to the drug as “iso” for isotonitazene.

According to The Independent, all parts of Britain experienced a “big influx” of nitazenes this past summer. London’s Metropolitan Police seized over 150,000 nitazene tablets in a drug haul last October, the largest synthetic opioid bust to date.

A drug testing service reported that, since September, nitazenes were found in 20 samples of black market benzodiazepines (common tranquilizers such as Xanax) that were tested in “every corner of the UK.” A spokesman for the drug testing center said, “People who purchase benzodiazepines wouldn’t necessarily expect them to be adulterated with nitazenes. This creates obvious potential concerns for ill‐​effects or overdose as a result.”

Fortunately, the opioid overdose antidote naloxone also works for nitazene overdoses, though they may require larger doses.

As I wrote last year,

News reports about the growing presence of nitazenes among the mix of street drugs should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with what has come to be known as “the iron law of prohibition.”

An application of what economists call the Alchian‐​Allen Effect, the concept was applied to prohibition (alcohol, cannabis, and other illicit substances) by Richard Cowan in the 1980s, who stated it simply: “The harder the enforcement, the harder the drugs.”

Prohibition incentivizes drug dealers to create more potent forms of the drug that can be smuggled more easily in smaller sizes and divided into more units to sell.

In my testimony before the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime and Government Surveillance last March, I stated,

I urge the Subcommittee to avoid doubling down on policies that will not only fail to stem the flow of illicit fentanyl but will fuel the development of more deadly replacements.

I also cautioned the Subcommittee,

Because most health departments have not been testing for nitazenes, we are unaware if nitazenes are becoming more prevalent among black market drugs. Yet, I wouldn’t be surprised if, two or three years from now, we are talking about the “nitazene crisis” instead of the fentanyl crisis.

Sadly, we might be talking about the “nitazene crisis” sooner than I thought.

0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
previous post
New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft for ‘scraping content’
next post
This Stock is up a Startling 90% This Year: Last Time This Happened Was in 2003

You may also like

The Senate’s Latest Budget Resolution is a Fiscal...

April 3, 2025

Biden’s Student Loan Repayment Plan Poses Danger to...

August 10, 2023

Tennessee Leads the Way in Removing Barriers to...

May 18, 2023

Call for Papers: Cato Health Policy Workshop 2025

April 23, 2025

Libertarian Economics in Inaugural Addresses

January 17, 2025

Public Schooling Culture War Cooled Considerably in 2024

January 16, 2025

Argentines Are All Peronists No Longer

August 14, 2023

Protectionist Policies Set to Inflate the Cost of...

August 15, 2023

Will Oregonians Strangle Drug Decriminalization Right After Its...

September 20, 2023

The New Deal and Recovery, Part 21: Postwar...

December 19, 2022

    Get free access to all of the retirement secrets and income strategies from our experts! or Join The Exclusive Subscription Today And Get the Premium Articles Acess for Free

    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Recent Posts

    • Jeremy Hunt ‘made a mistake’ targeting non-doms, says shadow business secretary

      June 27, 2025
    • Small firms raise alarm over Companies House rule change forcing profit disclosure

      June 27, 2025
    • UK vehicle production slumps to lowest May level since 1949 as tariffs bite

      June 27, 2025
    • 420,000 more pensioners dragged into income tax net as threshold freeze bites

      June 27, 2025
    • SMEs cautiously optimistic despite trade fears and AI talent gap, says Vistage

      June 27, 2025
    • Alibaba launches £750,000 pitch competition for UK and European SMEs

      June 27, 2025

    Categories

    • Business (8,322)
    • Investing (2,074)
    • Politics (15,824)
    • Stocks (3,172)
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Disclaimer: futureretirementsuccess.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2025 futureretirementsuccess.com | All Rights Reserved