'500 times more potent than heroin': UN warns of synthetic nitazenes

The United Nations released its World Drug Report on Thursday and the results are sobering. While fentanyl-related deaths are going down, new, even more dangerous, synthetic opioids called nitazenes are causing concern.

They are "500 times more potent than heroin," Angela Me, Chief of Research at the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told CGTN.

Synthetic drugs can be produced at low cost in a backyard and distributed via mail. 

"All of this instability that is in the Middle East is an opportunity for drug-trafficking organizations, to have more trafficking and also possibly to establish the production of synthetic drugs as we have seen in Syria with captagon," Me adds.

Meanwhile, seizures of cocaine are skyrocketing in places like Costa Rica, Colombia, and Ecuador. 

New markets

According to the World Drug Report, cocaine traffickers are breaking into new markets across Asia and Africa. Production, seizures, and use of cocaine all hit new highs in 2023, making cocaine the world's fastest-growing illicit drug market. 

The report says global conflicts are contributing to drug-related crime, once confined to Latin America.

"Organized drug trafficking groups continue to adapt, exploit global crises, and target vulnerable populations," declared Ghada Waly, Executive Director of UNODC.

Waly is calling for more cross-border cooperation and judicial action to target what she describes as the key actors of these criminal organizations which are exploiting today's global crises. 

She also urged law enforcement agencies to invest in new technology, to match the sophistication of tools used in the drug supply chain.

Chemical composition

Traffickers often change the chemical composition of drugs to avoid detection by law enforcement. The UNODC says China is addressing this problem by putting the whole class of nitazene substances under international control.

"When there's been the international community calling for putting under control, finding new legislation, China has always responded," Me told CGTN. "The example of nitazene now is the example of how promptly China is responding also to the new threat."

It's a critical step given the world's historically high level of drug use. The UN report says some 316 million people used a drug in 2023, excluding alcohol and tobacco.

The body warns that new groups of vulnerable people fleeing instability and conflict could cause the numbers to increase further.