Are Nitazenes Really 500 Times More Potent Than Heroin?
The opioid epidemic rages on, ruining lives and killing people across the country every year. Still, it hasn’t stayed the same since it first began in 1999, as an increasing number of people suffered from addiction to and misuse of prescription painkillers. As the opioid epidemic evolved, new trends were revealed in heroin use, leading to the need to better understand heroin addiction signs, followed by the rise of fentanyl. This potent synthetic opioid is easily available in illicit forms and is now the dominant cause of fatal drug overdoses in the United States. In recent years, another kind of opioid began to show up in America, and it’s now raising concerns due to its extreme potency. In some cases, nitazenes are 500 times more potent than heroin.
Table of contents
» What Are Nitazenes and Where Did They Come From?
» How Do Nitazenes Compare to Fentanyl in Strength?
» What Are the Overdose Risks of Nitazene Use?
» How Can You Recognize and Respond to a Nitazene Overdose?
» Key Takeaways on Nitazenes 500 Times More Potent Than Heroin
» Resources
What Are Nitazenes and Where Did They Come From?
Opioids are a wide-ranging class of drugs that work by affecting specialized opioid receptors in the user’s brain, leading to pain and stress relief and euphoria and, all too easily, locking the person into a vicious cycle of use, abuse, tolerance, dependence, and addiction. Natural opioids, also known as opiates, came first, such as morphine, codeine, and opium, and are derived from the opium poppy seed pod.
Semi-synthetic opioids, including heroin and popular prescription painkillers like hydrocodone, oxycodone, and oxymorphone, were next, and are created in labs by chemically modifying and processing natural opioids. Synthetic opioids are, as their name implies, made entirely by humans in a lab and don’t contain natural ingredients. Synthetics include methadone, tramadol, and fentanyl.
Nitazenes are their own type of synthetic opioid that has been around for decades, but only became a threat on the global illegal drug market in recent years. Officially known as 2-benzyl benzimidazole opioids, nitazenes were first developed in the 1950s by a Swiss pharmaceutical research lab by scientists who were trying to find possible alternatives to morphine.
Even way back then, researchers knew right away that these drugs were far too dangerous, with an extremely high risk of overdose and addiction due to their potency, and their initial plans to develop this drug into pain relievers and anesthetics for humans and animals were abandoned.
They were basically not known to anyone except opioid researchers ever since, other than isolated cases of recreational use, when nitazenes were tied to 10 deaths in Moscow in 1998 and were found to be personally made by someone in Utah in 2003. However, that has shifted rapidly since 2019, when nitazenes started to appear on the European illegal drug market, and they’re now found across the world.
There are at least 20 unique types of nitazenes that have been identified in the drug market so far, though it’s believed there are far more than that. Like other opioids, they can be injected, snorted, swallowed, or inhaled. The most common types of nitazenes are:
- Metonitazene
- Protonitazene
- Butonitazene
- Etodesnitazene
- Flunitazene
- N-pyrrolidinio etontiazene
How Do Nitazenes Compare to Fentanyl in Strength?
In a lot of ways, nitazenes are like other opioids: They have a high risk of dependence, tolerance, and addiction; they work by affecting opioid receptors in the brain; and they can cause dangerous and even deadly drug overdoses all too easily. Withdrawing from these drugs without rehab can be dangerous and often ends in relapse, just like other opioids.
However, what truly sets nitazenes apart from most opioids is how incredibly potent they can be, so powerful, in fact, that the original researchers who made them never pursued their original plan of using them as an alternative to morphine due to how strong and dangerous they truly are.
It’s been said that fentanyl is as much as 50 times stronger than heroin, and some examples of these new drugs suggest the existence of nitazenes 500 times more potent than heroin. To put it into perspective, here’s how these certain nitazenes compare in strength to fentanyl:
- Butonitazenes and Etodesnitazenes: One-quarter to one-half as strong as fentanyl.
- ISO: The most common nitazene on the illegal drug market, this is 5 to 9 times as strong as fentanyl.
- N-pyrrolidino Protonitazenes: Up to 25 times stronger than fentanyl.
- N-pyrrolidino Etonitazenes: Up to 43 times stronger than fentanyl.
So, if fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin, and N-pyrrolidino protonitazenes are 25 times stronger than fentanyl, that means this one type of nitazene is potentially 1,250 times stronger than heroin, and that’s not even the most potent nitazene on the market.
What Are the Overdose Risks of Nitazene Use?
It’s not hard to believe that nitazenes could have high risks of overdose and severe medical problems, considering that there are nitazenes 500 times more potent than heroin, or even stronger than that. Even in early 2024, just four or five years after nitazenes were first starting to be found in the European and American illegal drug market, it was estimated that as many as 2,000 people had died from nitazene use since 2019.
Perhaps the most significant risk with these drugs is that, like illicit fentanyl, nitazenes can be mixed into or added to other illegal drugs as a cheap, easy way of making them stronger and it can be impossible for someone to know that the heroin, oxycodone, or ecstasy that they’ve purchased also contains a potentially life-threatening amount of these synthetic opioids.
Most nitazene overdoses are unintentional, and when they happen, people around them might not even know this is what’s happening—meaning they don’t get the life-saving treatment in time for what they’re actually overdosing on.
Because they’re so powerful, people who relapse after rehab for addiction and use nitazenes can be especially at risk of suffering an overdose. This can be especially dangerous when people use nitazenes with other drugs, including other central nervous system depressants like other opioids, alcohol, or benzos.
One other unique risk of nitazene overdose is due to its extreme potency. One nitazene might be half as powerful or comparable to fentanyl, while another can be 25 or 43 times stronger than fentanyl. Because this can range so widely, people can find it impossible to figure out a “safe dose,” and that can sadly result in a fatal overdose.
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How Can You Recognize and Respond to a Nitazene Overdose?
The signs of a nitazene overdose are similar to other opioid overdoses and can include things like:
- Slow or labored breathing
- Stopping breathing entirely
- Pinpoint pupils
- Blue or gray lips and skin
- Losing consciousness
- Falling into a coma
- Strange, loud, snoring-like sounds or raspy breathing
- Slow heart rate
- Low blood pressure
If someone is suffering from a nitazene overdose, they need medical attention immediately. If they don’t get help, they can stop breathing, suffer organ and brain damage, and ultimately be at a high risk of death. Call 911 right away, and give the person naloxone if possible to try to reverse the opioid overdose. One important thing to know is that because nitazenes can be so potent, it’s often required to use multiple doses of naloxone to reverse the overdose temporarily. Stay with the person until emergency responders arrive.
Key Takeaways on Nitazenes 500 Times More Potent Than Heroin
- Synthetic opioids are often extremely potent, and fentanyl remains a primary driver of drug overdose deaths today.
- Nitazenes are a different kind of synthetic opioid that can be far stronger than fentanyl.
- In some cases, nitazenes 500 times more potent than heroin, have been found on the drug market.
- Nitazenes were never approved for animal or human use due to their extreme potency and high potential for addiction and abuse.
- Overdosing on nitazenes can easily lead to death.
If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction to synthetic opioids like nitazenes, you’re playing a dangerous game, and it can all too easily lead to death and ruined lives if you don’t get help. Fortunately, WhiteSands Treatment knows how to help. Call us at 877-855-3470 today to learn how to get started on the road to recovery.
Resources
- National Library of Medicine – Nitazenes: An Old Drug Class Causing New Problems
- Organization of American States Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission – The Emergence of Nitazenes in the Americas
- Medical Discovery News – Even Worse Than Fentanyl
If you or a loved one needs help with abuse and/or treatment, please call the WhiteSands Treatment at (877) 855-3470. Our addiction specialists can assess your recovery needs and help you get the addiction treatment that provides the best chance for your long-term recovery.
About the Author
Jackie has been involved in the substance abuse and addiction treatment sector for over five years and this is something that she is truly eager about. She has a passion for writing and continuously works to create informative pieces that not only educate and inform the public about the disease of addiction but also provide solutions for those who struggle with drug and alcohol abuse.
