PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office is conducting toxicology tests for nitazenes, synthetic opioids that are being blamed for hundreds of overdose deaths in Europe.
Nitazenes are cut into the drug supply and have the potential to be stronger than fentanyl.
“You probably have a 60% to 70% chance that a nitazene might be more potent than a fentanyl,” said Dr. Ellen Walker, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Temple University.
She said nitazenes and fentanyl are often mixed together in an effort by drug dealers to extend the opioid high.
“Fentanyl doesn’t have legs; it doesn’t last that long. So they add things to it to try to make it last longer,” she explained. “The nitazenes don’t have that problem. They’re potent and they last longer.”
Both drugs are mostly manufactured illicitly in China and India. The presence of nitazenes may be growing here because of a recent fentanyl crackdown by the Chinese government.
“Under pressure, they cracked down on fentanyl [manufacturing] and made the consequences much harsher,” she said.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime called for a global response to the increasing availability of nitazenes following hundreds of overdose deaths in Europe.
Philadelphia first began testing for nitazenes in overdose deaths in 2023. The Department of Public Health said there has not been a single recorded nitazene-involved overdose death so far this year, but the drug supply is being monitored for the drug.