Latest news with #syntheticopioids
CBC
14 hours ago
- CBC
Deadly opioid 40 times more powerful than fentanyl smuggled into Canada inside PlayStations, basketballs
Social Sharing The video call is grainy, but it's crystal clear what the person on the phone is trying to sell: illicit drugs, packaged and ready to be shipped to Canada. The seller, who goes by the name Kim, says he sells cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA and nitazenes, a powerful class of synthetic opioids most people have never heard of — but which can be up to 43 times more powerful than fentanyl. "It can kill people, right? So, I just want to make sure that you know that," the CBC journalist asks in a secretly recorded phone call. "That is the game," the seller replies. The seller is one of the 14 people the CBC's visual investigation unit spoke to in text messages and phone calls after finding them through ads posted by users on major social media platforms such as LinkedIn, X and Reddit and e-commerce websites advertising nitazenes for sale. WATCH | How synthetic opioids get into Canada: Worse than fentanyl: How smugglers get a new, deadly drug into Canada 2 minutes ago Duration 5:37 A CBC News visual investigation tracks how deadly and super-potent synthetic opioids called nitazenes make their way into Canada, where they have killed hundreds of people. With open source support from investigators at Bellingcat, CBC finds hundreds of ads for nitazenes online, posted to social media and e-commerce sites, and talks to the sellers behind them to expose how these deadly drugs get smuggled to Canada. These ads, posted in the open, contain contact information that put CBC in touch with drug dealers who claim to be part of international criminal networks. CBC did not purchase any illegal substances. Nitazenes, which have never been approved for medical use and are Schedule 1 drugs under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, have increasingly been turning up in drug busts across Canada. Last year, two lab busts in Quebec alone may have accounted for more than a million counterfeit pharmaceutical oxycodone pills, which were actually protonitazepyne, a type of nitazene — or "analog" — according to the RCMP. Nitazenes have killed hundreds of Canadians over the past four years, according to data collected by CBC's visual investigations unit from coroners across the country. "[North Americans] not only are the largest consumers of nitazines, but really have the biggest problem as it relates to the number of deaths," said Alex Krotulski, director of the Center for Forensic Science Research & Education in Pennsylvania, a toxicology lab that tests for nitazenes in Canada and the U.S. "This is really becoming an established drug class of novel synthetic opioids." A more potent high Nitazenes aren't nearly as popular as fentanyl and its analogs, but they offer a more potent high, making them appealing to drug dealers. Drug users might not even know they're consuming nitazenes, which can be laced into counterfeit pills. "It makes me angry," said Montreal resident Christian Boivin after CBC shared its findings with him. Boivin's 15-year-old son Mathis died of a nitazene overdose last year after consuming what he thought were oxycodone pills. "[These sellers] don't have a conscience. They're bad people and they just want money… they don't care about lives." Mathis's story isn't an isolated case. Because public-facing statistics group them as "non-fentanyl opioids," CBC reached out to coroners in all 13 provinces and territories to compile data on the total number of deaths from nitazenes in Canada. The data received was incomplete — for example, Manitoba only provided statistics for 2024 — but indicates there have been nearly 400 deaths directly attributed to nitazenes or suspected to involve nitazenes since 2021. The true number of deaths is likely even higher. "I guarantee you because of the variability in toxicology testing, the variability in practices and variability in funding availability… [the number of deaths] is underreported," said Donna Papsun, a forensic toxicologist at Pennsylvania-based NMS Labs, which tests samples from across Canada. "If they're not looking for it, you can't find it." Going by the available data, the most deaths were in Alberta, with 121 since 2021, followed by Quebec with 91 and B.C. with 81. "We're worried that this will continue to rise as an ongoing threat," said Dan Anson, director general of intelligence and investigations for the Canada Border Services Agency. Sellers reveal how they smuggle drugs One of the ways that nitazenes make their way into Canada is through sellers who advertise on social media networks by posting images of powders overlaid with contact information. "Online ads are how this market functions right now," Anson told CBC. CBC's visual investigations unit, with support from open-source investigators at Bellingcat, found hundreds of ads in user-generated posts for more than a dozen types of nitazenes on social media platforms, including X, Reddit, LinkedIn, Behance (a graphic design website owned by Adobe), and e-commerce websites in India such as Exporters India, Dial4trade and TradeIndia. They surfaced by the dozens in Google image searches for keywords related to nitazene analogs. It often took mere minutes to receive a reply after responding to an online ad. Sellers were quick to share videos of their labs and products, even offering a step-by-step guide on how they would ship the drugs to Canada: first, by mislabelling the packages, then by concealing them inside PlayStation 5s, deflated basketballs, teapots and Chinese herbal packages. They would then be shipped via courier or the mail. Previous reporting on the topic in the U.K. even had the drugs hidden in dog food and catering supplies. One seller told a CBC reporter that shipments of nitazene could even be delivered the same day from Detroit, Mich., to Windsor, Ont. Platforms respond to CBC's questions on nitazene ads: "You'll see some pretty bizarre levels of creativity when it comes to importing illegal drugs," said Anson. "They're coming from online marketplaces ... and they're going to come through postal courier." When reached by CBC for comment, LinkedIn, Reddit and Adobe removed the posts containing ads that were flagged. X did not respond to a request for comment and the flagged posts were still live at the time of publishing. A Google spokesperson said it complies with valid legal removal requests from the public and authorities. Dial4Trade and Exporters India, two India-based e-commerce platforms where ads were found, told CBC they added restrictions to block nitazene ads. TradeIndia, another platform, said it removed the flagged ads. A global network It became clear that sellers of nitazenes are spread across the globe, and aren't always who or where they purport to be online. On the e-commerce site TradeIndia, next to the heading "Etonitazene Powder," was a picture of a brown powder offered by a Chinese biotech company. On its website, the company states "nothing is above the human health." It has an address listed in Shanghai that doesn't exist on Google Maps. But the company was quick to explain why the address didn't exist when asked in a secretly recorded phone call. "It's very dangerous to sell in China," a man who went by Jerry told a CBC reporter during a call with a Mandarin translator. Jerry said he and his partners needed a fake address to make the company seem real, but also so they couldn't be discovered by Chinese authorities. Videos inside overseas drug labs To show they were legitimate distributors, they shared videos from their lab — and said the name of the CBC reporter and the date to prove the video's authenticity — and showed us past shipments to Canada. They even offered to send samples of nitazenes for free to test for purity. But the sellers weren't just from China. CBC spoke to sellers who claimed to ship from the U.S., the U.K., India, even the Philippines. Over video, one seller who said they're from the U.K. showed shipment records that he said were for drugs going to Grande Prairie, Alta. Like any global trade, some nitazene sellers said they were struggling with the impact of U.S. tariffs. A person representing a company called Umesh Enterprises that claimed to be based out of India said nitazenes are "coming from India.... due to the issues going on between the U.S. and China with the tariffs," they said during a call. "There's been a lot of blockage from China so…. we go with India." The speaker, like many of the sellers, acknowledged that importing nitazenes to Canada is illegal and knew how lethal these synthetic opioids can be. "[These sellers] don't care how many people they take down or how many families they hurt," said Toronto resident Dale Sutherland, whose 22-year-old son Corey died from an overdose involving a nitazene in 2022. "It's very frustrating…. we have to have more regulations, more strict penalties." In response to CBC's findings, Canada's fentanyl czar, Kevin Brosseau, said in a statement the "emergence of nitazenes, and other highly potent synthetic opioids, is something I am concerned about and am taking very seriously." Brosseau pointed to the federal government's recently tabled Bill C-2, or Strong Borders Act, which will give Canada Post more authority to open mail and remove barriers to law enforcement inspecting mail during an investigation. Critics of the proposed act demanded the complete withdrawal of Bill C-2, warning it would expand government surveillance.
SBS Australia
3 days ago
- Health
- SBS Australia
Victoria to open Australia's second permanent pill testing site
The service will offer testing for most substances - and act as an early detection point for authorities on the lookout for highly dangerous synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and Nitazenes, which can be mixed with other drugs. The decision puts Victoria in a unique position on drug policy, as Australia's states and territories grapple with how to balance harm minimisation with increasingly tough law and order approaches. Listen to the full story on our podcast. SBS Japanese 18/06/2025 06:48 Listen to SBS Japanese Audio on Tue, Thu and Fri from 1pm on SBS 3. Replays from 10pm on Tue, Thu and Sat on SBS1. Listen to past stories from our podcast. Download the free SBS Audio App and don't forget to visit SBS Japanese Facebook and Instagram page!
CNN
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Danger of synthetic opioids, rise of stablecoins, big day for gamers: Catch up on the day's stories
👋 Welcome to 5 Things PM! It's a big day for gamers. Some Nintendo fans camped out overnight to get dibs on the new Switch 2 console, which arrived on store shelves. It marks the gaming giant's first major launch since the original Switch came out in 2017. Here's what else you might have missed during your busy day: 1️⃣ Synthetic opioids: Overdoses and drug poisonings are now the third-leading cause of death in people younger than 20 in the US, behind firearms and motor vehicle crashes. An emergency room doctor explains why opioids are so dangerous. 2️⃣ 'Absolute sh*tshow': NASA scientists are in limbo after the Trump administration proposed eliminating the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Closing the lab could jeopardize the country's leadership role in global climate science. 3️⃣ Travel ban: President Donald Trump announced a sweeping crackdown that prevents citizens from a dozen nations from entering the US — and seven more face partial restrictions. Here's what we know about the countries on the list. 4️⃣ All about stablecoins: They're a type of crypto asset that is tied to the value of another currency, such as the US dollar or gold. The coins have grown in popularity in recent years for use in digital payments, and now Congress is debating how to regulate them. 5️⃣ Worms galore: For the first time, scientists were able to capture images of nematodes that stack themselves into a wriggling, vertical tower. Watch the tiny architects in action. GET '5 THINGS' IN YOUR INBOX CNN's 5 Things newsletter is your one-stop shop for the latest headlines and fascinating stories to start and end your busy day. Sign up here. 👃 The nose knows: Nasal strips can help prevent snoring and improve sleep — and they may even enhance athletic performance. Tennis star Carlos Alcaraz is a big fan of wearing them during matches to aid in his recovery between points, but do they actually work that way? An expert weighs in on the benefits. • Feud between Trump and Musk explodes into public view• Judge says Sean 'Diddy' Combs could be excluded from courtroom for nodding at jury• Supreme Court sides with straight woman in decision that makes it easier to win 'reverse discrimination' suits That's how many men in Australia reported using violence with an intimate partner in a study that shows gender-based abuse is rising. 🔍 'Borrowed': Greenpeace activists took a wax statue of French President Emmanuel Macron from the Grévin Museum and placed it outside the Russian embassy in Paris to protest continued business ties between the two countries. Although McCarthyism was bad, it wasn't anywhere as pervasive as it is right now — that kind of fear you see stretching through law firms and universities. George Clooney 💬 Politics of fear: The actor sat down with CNN's Anderson Cooper on the set of his Broadway play 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' which focuses on Edward R. Murrow's famous battle with Sen. Joseph McCarthy. 🪡 Michaels is expanding its fabric selection following the collapse of which competitor?A. JoannB. A.C. MooreC. Hobby LobbyD. Factory Direct Craft⬇️ Scroll down for the answer. ⚽ A goal-orious mistake: The manager of Finland's women's national soccer team accidentally called up a 51-year-old with the same surname as a 23-year-old she meant to select. Stina Ruuskanen, who last played for the Finnish national team 29 years ago, took it all in good spirits. 'I'm definitely ready if the call comes!' she joked. 👋 We'll see you tomorrow.🧠 Quiz answer: A. Michaels is jumping into the void left by the collapse of Joann. Test your knowledge with CNN's weekly news quiz in tomorrow's 5 Things newsletter.📧 Check out all of CNN's newsletters. 5 Things PM is produced by CNN's Chris Good, Meghan Pryce, Kimberly Richardson and Morgan Severson.
CNN
05-06-2025
- General
- CNN
Youth overdoses from synthetic opioids like fentanyl continue to rise. What should parents do?
Prescription drugs Drugs in society ParentingFacebookTweetLink Follow EDITOR'S NOTE: If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, help is available. Dial or text 988 or visit for free and confidential support. The United States is facing an alarming increase in overdose deaths among young people due to synthetic opioids. The rate of drug overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, which include fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, increased more than 20-fold between 2013 and 2022, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overdoses and drug poisonings are now the third leading cause of death in people under age 20, behind firearms and motor vehicle crashes. The overdose death counts among US youth ages 15 to 24 rose from 4,652 to 6,723 between 2018 and 2022, according to a new study in the journal Pediatrics. (A slight decrease occurred between 2021 and 2022.) The largest increase was seen in deaths involving only synthetic opioids: Since 2020, fatal overdoses involving only these substances were higher than overdoses in which multiple substances were implicated. Overdose rates were nearly 2.5 times higher among male youths compared with female youths and more than two times higher among those ages 20 to 24 compared with those ages 15 to 19. As a parent, I wanted to know more about synthetic opioids and their uses. Why are they so dangerous, and how are overdoses treated? How can people tell if the drugs they are taking contain synthetic opioids? Crucially, what can parents and other family members do to help reduce the risk of overdose? To help us answer these questions, I spoke with CNN wellness expert Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and adjunct associate professor at the George Washington University. Previously, she served as Baltimore's health commissioner, where she oversaw the city's opioid prevention strategy. CNN: What are synthetic opioids? What are they used for? Dr. Leana Wen: Prescription opioids are medications used to treat severe pain. They must be used with caution, however, because if they are used in higher than prescribed doses or otherwise incorrectly, they can result in drowsiness, slowed and shallow breathing, and even death. Opioids can be classified by where they originate. So-called natural opioids are derived from the poppy plant and include drugs such as morphine and codeine. Semisynthetic opioids include oxycodone and hydrocodone. Synthetic opioids are made in the laboratory. The synthetic opioid most implicated in fatal overdoses is fentanyl, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. There are other synthetic opioids too, such as tramadol and methadone. Methadone is also used as a treatment for people with opioid use disorder. Notably, the CDC's statistics and the new study in Pediatrics do not include methadone in their calculation of fatal overdoses due to synthetic opioids. The majority of synthetic overdose deaths in the US involve fentanyl or fentanyl derivatives. CNN: Are there legitimate medical uses of fentanyl? Wen: Yes. Fentanyl is often used in emergency settings to treat acute pain. For instance, someone who was in a high-speed car accident and just broke their hip needs immediate pain relief. It is also given to patients who have chronic pain that is not relieved by other methods. Some cancer patients with intractable pain use a fentanyl patch or fentanyl lozenge, for example. The current trend of youth overdoses is probably not mostly due to fentanyl being diverted from legitimate medical purposes. In recent years, there has been a significant problem with fentanyl being made in illegal labs. Synthetic fentanyl is sold illegally as a powder dropped onto blotter paper, put in eyedroppers and nasal sprays or, perhaps most terrifyingly, as pills that resemble other prescription pills, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In addition, fentanyl is often mixed in with other drugs. People who think they are taking amphetamines, oxycodone, cocaine, heroin, MDMA (also known as ecstasy) or other 'party drugs' may be unknowingly taking fentanyl. Depending on the amount of fentanyl they are ingesting, they could overdose and die. CNN: What makes fentanyl especially dangerous? Wen: To begin, fentanyl is an extremely potent opioid. It is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. A small amount can lead to oversedation and death. People may not realize how dangerous fentanyl is or even that what they are taking has fentanyl in it. There have been numerous cases of high school and college-age students who have died after being given fentanyl-laced pills. CNN: How are overdoses treated? Wen: The treatment for opioid overdose is the medication naloxone, also sometimes referred to by its brand name Narcan. It is available as a nasal spray and as an intramuscular injection. The nasal spray is available over the counter for under $50. Some health insurance plans will cover naloxone, and some state and local health departments may give out this medication free of charge. If given immediately after someone loses consciousness, it could reverse the overdose and save someone's life. Individuals who come to after getting naloxone should still receive immediate medical care. They may need additional doses of naloxone, and they could need treatment for other potentially dangerous substances they have taken. CNN: How can people tell if the drugs they are taking contain synthetic opioids? Wen: This is an important question — the answer is that people can't easily tell if the drug they are taking contains fentanyl. Counterfeit medications can look exactly like the prescription form. If fentanyl is mixed in with cocaine or other illicit drugs, it's not possible to tell based on simply looking at the substance, as fentanyl is odorless and colorless. Fentanyl test strips can check for the presence of fentanyl in the drug supply. While the use of these strips can reduce overdose risk, know that just because one pill in the supply doesn't contain fentanyl doesn't mean that others all don't. Moreover, these strips don't test for other contaminants that can also be deadly. I want to share another key number: Of the fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills analyzed in 2022 by the US Drug Enforcement Administration Laboratory, 6 out of 10 contained a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl. This is a sobering statistic and should be reason enough for people never to use illicit prescription pills or other illegal substances. CNN: What can parents and other family members do to help reduce the risk of overdose? Wen: Parents should speak with their children about the danger of counterfeit and illicit drugs. It doesn't matter if parents used drugs when they were younger. Drugs today are so much more powerful and dangerous. People should never take medications that don't belong to them. They don't know where the medications came from, if the medications are really what they claim to be, and whether they have contaminants such as fentanyl in which even a small amount could be fatal. I think it's also good practice to have naloxone accessible. As I mentioned, this medication is now available over the counter. Everyone can learn to use it and have it in their medicine cabinet.
The Independent
03-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Opioid ‘hundred times stronger than heroin' linked to UK clubbing deaths for first time
Two people in their twenties have died in London after allegedly consuming a super-strong opioid drug, the first that experts have linked in the UK to the new substance. Warned that they can be hundreds of times stronger than heroin, nitazenes are a newer form of synthetic opioid and can be mis-sold as drugs including oxycodone, which is a highly addictive prescription drug used to treat pain. A 20-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man are understood to have taken the drug after visiting a club in south London over the May bank holiday weekend. The blue tablets, which are marked with the number 80, could potentially be mistaken for 'oxys', which can help users fall asleep. In a statement on their social media page, the nightclub Ministry of Sound in Elephant and Castle said: 'We have been informed of a dangerous batch of blue-green pills marked with '80' are being sold across London. 'These pills have been linked to hospitalisations and tragically two confirmed fatalities. 'Reports indicate they contain synthetic opioids, along with traces of ketamine and MDMA. They are being mis-sold as Ecstasy or Oxycodone, and investigations are ongoing.' They encouraged anyone who was feeling unwell while at the venue to seek medical help immediately from their on-site team. The Cause, in east London, and Fabric, in Farringdon, also posted similar messages warning people of the risks of consuming the drug. It has prompted fears ahead of festival season, with increased calls for front-of-house drug testing. Speaking to The Times, Professor Fiona Measham, the founder of drug checking charity The Loop, said: 'Up to now, there have been about two nitazene-related deaths per week in the UK, predominantly linked to contamination of opiate and street benzodiazepine markets,. 'This appears to be a leap from dependent to recreational drug using communities with the deaths of two clubbers but we don't yet know the purchase intent. If we did, we could target the appropriate groups looking to buy, for example, oxycodone or ecstasy pills.' The Home Office said: 'Every death from drugs is a tragedy and our thoughts are with the family and friends of the two individuals who have sadly lost their lives. 'We are determined to take steps to prevent drug-related deaths and we support the testing of drugs seized by the police or deposited in amnesty bins, but we cannot endorse testing for recreational users because there is no safe way to take illegal drugs. 'We are doing everything we can to tackle the evolving threat from synthetic opioids such as nitazenes, including working closely with the police to increase the number of officers carrying the opioid overdose antidote naloxone.' The Metropolitan Police said: 'We are currently investigating the death of two people at a residential address in Havelock Road, Southall. 'Met officers were called on Monday, 26 May at 16:00hrs following reports that a 20-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man had been found unresponsive. 'Paramedics from the London Ambulance Service attended the scene where both people were sadly pronounced dead. The deaths are being treated as unexpected and an investigation remains ongoing. 'Post-mortem examinations have been carried out and we await the results of toxicology findings. 'Next of kin for both the man and the woman have been informed, they are currently being supported by specialist officers.'
