Drug users "dropping like flies" as crime gangs lace street deals with deadly nitazenes

Daily Record

a day ago

Public health chiefs have received a torrent of claims about reckless mixing of synthetic compounds into drugs, which are believed to be sending the death rate soaring
Synthetic and contaminated drugs are causing a new generation of victims to 'drop like flies' as overdose deaths run out of control.
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Scottish communities are now being preyed on by drug gangs who are lacing heroin, cocaine and benzo pills with new and lethal compounds - like nitazenes, which can be 500 times more potent than heroin.
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The new mixes have brought a terrifying new face to the street drug scene - and experts believe the true damage is not being captured by toxicology tests.
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Annie Brown, who runs the Patchwork Recovery Community, in Kilmarnock, said users have reported pills and powders that look and smell different - and have deadly effects.
Annie said the landscape has shifted so dramatically that users now believe that almost all drugs are laced with ingredients that could be fatal.
She said: 'We have certainly entered a new phase in the kind of drugs being circulated and the damage being caused.
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'Our service users have been shocked at the increase in deaths. They say people have been dropping like flies in recent months.
'The people who still use drugs still take them because they think it won't happen to them. But they have no doubt that these nitazenes are coming into heroin supplies because they can tell by looking that the product is very different to before.'
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The Kilmarnock experience is a picture perfect reflection of the new trends found in the RADAR Report by Public Health Scotland, which captures the drug trends and accounts of users.
PHS believes that drug checking must be rolled out across Scotland, as the new mixes take hold.
And the health body admits the nation may soon overtake the shocking, worst ever death toll of 1,339 in 2020 - which the nation hoped to have left behind after years of small improvements.
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The RADAR Report also revealed that drug deaths for the quarter March to May were up 15 per cent on last year.
Annie Brown said an urgent rethink of current measures to help addicts is required.
She said: 'We have enough data already to show that things are going off a cliff again.
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'Service users are well aware that the drugs are different and they know that nitazenes are deadly. But what we have to understand is that they will take drugs anyway because their lives are so blighted that they don't care. They need to be reached by services that can make them care.'
At recent discussion sessions at Patchwork, clients have reported that heroin is tinged with green.
Annie said: 'They can see its green after its drawn up but still take it. There can be a perception that it must be strong and even a curiosity to see what the effect is.'
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Patchwork users also believe strongly that toxicology reports are flawed, as nitazenes do not show up as much as would be expected.
At the Patchwork meeting recently, members of the community named those who have died from overdoses this year at 25.
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Annie said: 'This is just the ones we know about. There must be many more. Our local Alcohol and Drug Partnership have confirmed their numbers show 24 'suspected' deaths.'
Annie said a shake-up of services is required that sheds excessive bureaucracy and protocols around treatments and support.
She said: 'We are here during daytime hours but recovery groups should be available at night and 24 hours if necessary."
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'But the big problem is still the same - and I think this is Scotland's biggest failure.
'People are left with no hope and nowhere to turn. They can't get appointments with drug workers and they get in the same methadone spiral.
'Their lives are so bleak and there seems so little hope of a better life that they don't care if they overdose. If they hear of a drug death they will chase the same drugs, despite knowing the risk. They think it must be strong and they just cross their fingers that it wouldn't be them the next time. And that type of risk management doesn't work.
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'At our most recent meeting one of our group summed it up: 'Its just getting worse and worse and its fxxxxxx hopeless.'
Tracey Stewart's partner died of an overdose on Christmas Day in 2020 - but she fears the spread of deadly opiates will create many more victims.
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She cradled the body of her partner of 23 years and phoned 999, knowing he was dead, yet another victim of overdose in Kilmarnock.
Toxicology results showed John Storrie had traces of methadone plus street drug etizolam and prescription drugs in his system - a common deadly cocktail.
Tracey said: 'I think things now are worse than ever. People don't even know what they are getting but they take it anyway.'
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She counted aloud six names of local people, all of whom have died in recent weeks.
Tracey, who has been drug free for almost a year, said: 'The big problem now is that the drugs are definitely changing. People look at stuff being sold as heroin and it's way different.
'It doesn't look the same and it doesn't make them feel the same.'
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Tracey said that many addicts suffer from a helter-skelter of methadone prescriptions being increased and decreased due to the way they engage with services instead of their health needs. She said this can bring overdose risks.
She said: 'John would do a urine test and if he had a dirty sample, with heroin in it, they would reduce his methadone. So that just meant he went the wrong way and took more stuff off the street.
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'The way methadone is run is a massive problem because that is a killer when it's mixed with other stuff and the new drugs are getting more and more dangerous.'
Another recovering addict Neil McGee, 54, from Catrine, said any person who ends up in a Scottish jail will see their chances of dying from overdose multiply dramatically.
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Neil, who served time for serious offences involving violence and fire-raising, said the opiate replacement therapy Espranor is known as 'jail cocaine'.
Other drugs also soon find their way to prisoners, who have little support when they are released.
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He said: 'When I went into jail I had no medication for my bi-polar disorder for six months, which was terrible, so I ended up taking Espranor to self medicate.
'There's a roaring currency in Espranor and any other drug that brings either a high or oblivion to people.
'Sop what you have is a prison population where about 95 per cent of people are either on drugs or suffering mental health issues.
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'When they get released there is very little support, just a mad minefield trying to get somewhere to stay and get back on track.'
Neil, who had a successful career as a buyer, said his life became chaotic and strewn with violence after the death of his mother more than 20 years ago led to alcohol and cocaine dependency.
During his connection to the Patchwork charity in the past three years, Neil has witnessed the deaths of at least 20 local people, mainly friends he's known from the recovery community.
He said: 'I'd say eight at least have died in the past year. This town is being wrecked by drugs and the community is rife with tales about the stuff being very different to before.
'There isn't enough support available and that needs to get sorted out urgently.'
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