Nitazenes: The next big illicit drug threat?

SANDUSKY — Nitazenes, a powerful synthetic opioid, is being described as a potential threat that could rival fentanyl as a deadly overdose hazard. But although warnings have been issued for years, there's no evidence yet that nitazenes are a major problem yet, either in Ohio or locally in Erie County. The officials warning about nitazenes include U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, who spoke out about the drug during a Jan. 11 Senate hearing, according to a press release issued by his office. Vance said he's worried that "we're always… a few years behind what's actually going on in our country" and said he's particularly concerned about nitazenes. "I've even talked to people just in the past few days who've been able to order this stuff on the Internet. It comes directly to their door, and they're dealing with a street drug that is substantially more powerful than what we give pregnant women in the hospital who are about to deliver a baby. This is extraordinarily potent stuff for people just to be able to order via mail," Vance said. Jeffrey Singer, who writes about the drug overdose crisis for the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C., wrote in a Dec. 28 that nitazenes are "more potent than fentanyl." "In September 2022, the Tennessee Department of Health reported that overdose deaths from nitazenes had increased four-fold between 2019 and 2021," Singer wrote. Singer also stated that many health departments in the U.S. aren't testing for nitazenes. According to a 2022 posting by the Drug Enforcement Administration, nitazenes are being mixed into other drugs. "In powder form, ISO can appear yellow, brown, or off-white in color. DEA regional forensic laboratories have seen this drug mixed into heroin and/or fentanyl (and marketed as common street drugs) with deadly consequences," the DEA statement said. It's also being pressed into counterfeit pills that are sold in the black market as genuine pharmaceutical pills. As with fentanyl, nitazenes are dangerous to unsuspecting users. "People have to keep in mind, with all the synthetic drugs out there, and the way they're being mixed together, you never know what you're actually buying," DEA Intelligence Analyst Maura Gaffney said. Erie County coroner Dr. Brian Baxter, who investigates drug overdose deaths in Erie County, said he's seen no evidence yet that nitazenes are a local problem. "I have not had any cases of that yet," Baxter said. Illicit drug use in Ohio is tracked by Harm Reduction Ohio, an Ohio nonprofit that presses for steps that it says would reduce the death toll from drug overdoses. Dennis Cauchon, the founder of Harm Reduction Ohio, looked at recent nitazene statistics at the Register's request and concluded, "As of yet, nitazenes have had no measurable effect on overdose death in Ohio." "Nitazenes are a small and declining share of the illicit drug supply — 1.2% of illicit drugs seized in 2021 to 0.7% in 2023," Cauchon wrote in an email to the Register detailing his findings. Nitazenes are almost always found in fentanyl, although the amount of fentanyl containing nitazenes has decreased from 3.9% in 2021 to 2% in 2023, Cauchon wrote. "Fentanyl remains overwhelmingly the drug in the Ohio supply that is killing people, found in 27% of drugs seized in 2023," he wrote. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has touted his FEND OFF Fentanyl Act as at least a partial solution to the fentanyl crisis. The measure has sanctions aimed at producers of fentanyl in China and Mexican drug cartels. It was included in a national security bill that the Senate has passed but which the House has refused to take up so far; the measure also included aid for Ukraine and Israel. "Ohio families need action now to address the fentanyl crisis and the House must move quickly to pass this vital legislation to bolster our national security," Brown said in a news release issued by his office. Singer, the Cato Institute drug analyst, critiqued the FEND OFF Fentanyl Act in another recent blog post at the Cato Institute website, arguing that it's unlikely to actually do any good and could make the problem worse. "If federal sanctions like these worked, organized crime would be a relic of the past. But it is alive and well," Singer wrote. "Putting pressure on Chinese fentanyl precursor manufacturers might aid their competitors in India. And because waging war on drugs is like a game of whack‐a‐mole, the precursor business will pop up in countries other than India as opportunities present themselves," he wrote. Nitazenes are easier to make, so if the act actually pressured the illicit fentanyl business, drug gangs may just switch to nitazenes, Singer argued.