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The Journal
a day ago
- Health
- The Journal
'Melissa was not a statistic': Family seek answers over young mum's sudden death
THE FAMILY OF a young Dublin woman who took her own life whilst homeless in England say she was 'failed in life and death' by the systems meant to keep her safe. Mother-of-two Melissa Core died in Brighton on January 8 this year. Originally from Finglas, she had been struggling with mental health and addiction issues in the last years of her life. The vulnerable 34-year-old had been under the care of local adult safeguarding services, and disclosed mental health and domestic abuse concerns to outreach workers. Her mother Barbara, along with her sister Emily Kearns, believe Melissa's death was the result of 'repeated and preventable failures' by agencies including health services, police, and safeguarding bodies. 'Melissa did not die suddenly, and she did not die without warning,' her sister Emily told The Journal . 'Her death was the final result of repeated and preventable failings. She reached out, she disclosed abuse, and she asked for help. 'But time and time again, she was dismissed, misjudged, and left to face danger on her own.' Family feel Melissa was 'completely unsupported' Her family described how Melissa moved to the English seaside town several years ago to pursue a relationship, which later broke down. During this time, the young woman began struggling with alcohol and homelessness. In the months prior to her death, she disclosed incidents of domestic abuse and suicidal thoughts, and was violently attacked in the street. According to medical documents obtained by her family, and seen by The Journal , the young mum repeatedly told services that she felt unsafe. Following a suicide attempt in September 2024, she was assessed as high risk by outreach workers. However, no safeguarding referral was made to the city's adult services. By October, Melissa, who was in receipt of help from homeless charity Change Grow Live (CGL), was hospitalised after being violently attacked in the street. According to medical documents, she suffered a significant head injury which led to hearing loss. Yet, no coordinated care plan was put in place for the mother-of-two, and her case was never flagged with Brighton and Hove Council's Adult Safeguarding Board. 'She was known to services, documented as high risk, and completely unsupported,' Emily said. She begged for help. She was ignored. In the early hours of January 5, Melissa was found unconscious in the Rock Street area of the city. She was rushed to hospital, but despite the efforts of doctors, she passed away on January 8. Her family, who travelled from Dublin to be at her bedside, were left devastated and heartbroken. Melissa Core, whose family has flagged serious concerns with West Sussex Coroner's Office over her death. Emily Kearns Emily Kearns Advertisement Incorrect date of death recorded They say the trauma of losing Melissa has been compounded by unanswered questions around her death. The family say they were only told of significant injuries found on her body months later. This included a fractured C-spine and what one doctor recorded as a 'highly suspicious' carotid artery injury. In a referral from a hospital doctor to the coroner's office following her death, it was also stated that Melissa's passing 'may have been caused or contributed to by violence'. No toxicology testing was carried out while the 34 year-old was in hospital, which the family says has left them unable to understand the young woman's state-of-mind at the time of her passing. The wrong date of death was initially recorded on her death certificate, while a hospital discharge summary was issued while she was still on life support. CCTV footage showing Melissa's final moments was also not immediately seized by police, and ended up being viewed by her sister Emily after the family visited premises close to where her sister was found. These concerns have all been flagged with West Sussex Coroner's Office, which is currently investigating the mum-of-two's death, Barbara Core said. However, she says the family have been left disappointed with communications with the coroner's office on these issues. 'These were basic things that should never have gone wrong,' Barbara Core said. 'We feel stonewalled every time we ask for answers.' In response, a spokesperson for West Sussex Coroner's Office said it could not comment on the young woman's case until an inquest into her sudden death concludes. Charity 'extremely saddened' over death Brighton and Hove City Council, which oversees adult safeguarding in the city, said: 'While we are unable to comment in any detail, the circumstances are being considered by the coroner. 'We have no contact details for the family but would welcome them getting in touch… including the possibility of a review by the Safeguarding Adults Board.' In a statement to The Journal , a spokesperson for CGL, the support service Melissa had engaged with, said they are 'extremely saddened' by her death 'We take any concerns very seriously…but we cannot comment further while the coroner's investigation is underway,' they said. University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust confirmed that only routine blood tests were carried out on Melissa, and that samples were discarded as no request had been made to retain them. The Trust said procedures were followed, and expressed regret that no further assistance could be offered to the Core family. Separately, Sussex Police told The Journal a 'thorough investigation' found no evidence of third-party involvement in Melissa's death, and that the matter has been referred to the coroner. A full inquest into Melissa's death is expected to be heard later this year. Her family say they will continue to push for answers until every question has been addressed. 'Melissa was not a statistic,' Emily said. 'She was our sister, our daughter, our mother. 'She deserved dignity in life and in death. Her voice was ignored while she was alive, we will not let it be ignored now.' If you have been affected by any of the issues mentioned in this article, you can reach out for support through the following helplines. These organisations also put people in touch with long-term supports: Samaritans 116 123 or email jo@ Text About It - text HELLO to 50808 (mental health issues) Aware 1800 80 48 48 (depression, anxiety) Pieta House 1800 247 247 or text HELP to 51444 – (suicide, self-harm) Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
The Sun
31-07-2025
- Health
- The Sun
Urgent warning over drug so lethal even tiny traces can trigger fatal overdose – as deaths surge across Europe
A NEW drug so powerful that a single grain can be deadly is killing hundreds, a new report has revealed. Nitazenes, man-made opioids mainly imported from China, have been linked to a surge in deaths across Europe, with experts warning of a looming public health 'catastrophe.' 4 4 Up to 250 times stronger than heroin, the Class A concoction is so potent it's been nicknamed a 'Frankenstein' drug in the past. They are being cut into street drugs like heroin, nitazenes are also mixed into fake painkillers and anxiety meds that can be easily bought online. Drug lords sometimes do this to make the drugs stronger, or bulk out supply and profits, but it means users often unwittingly take the dangerous substances. Just a trace amount can shut down the body's central nervous system and trigger an instant overdose. Nitazenes have already swept through the US, fuelling its deadly opioid crisis - one Europe had mostly avoided, until now. Parts of Europe, specifically Britain and the Baltic states are facing an influx of deaths related to the drug. Hundreds of people died in the UK, from overdoses involving nitazenes over 18 months until January of this year, according to the government. 'This is probably the biggest public health crisis for people who use drugs in the UK. since the AIDS crisis in the 1980s,' Vicki Markiewicz, executive director for Change Grow Live, a leading treatment provider for drugs and alcohol in the UK, told The Wall Street Journal. Just this week, Scottish health chiefs have warned that nitazenes are tearing through Scotland, warning of an imminent wave of deaths. The synthetic opioids are also fuelling a sharp rise in fatalities in Estonia and Latvia. Frankenstein drug 50 times stronger than fentanyl set to cause 'tsunami of deaths' in UK & spark war between crime gangs 'Synthetic opioids in the US have not been driven by demand, they have been driven wholesale by supply,' Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said. 'If large criminal groups such as Albanian mafia groups, Turkish criminal groups or Italian or Mexican groups get into supplying nitazenes to Europe on a large scale, we can anticipate a massive public healthcare catastrophe.' Drug cartels in Mexico could 'easily' use their contacts in China to funnel nitazenes into the US, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has warned. So far, Mexico hasn't seized any shipments of the drug, but the DEA says it's already found in at least 4,300 drug seizures since 2019. Just identifying the substance is a challenge, as most overdose tests don't screen for nitazenes meaning the true death toll could be far higher than reported. More than 400 deaths in the UK Nitazenes were first developed in Switzerland in the 1950s as an alternative to morphine. However, the drugs were so strong and addictive that they were never approved for medical use. But they re-emerged on the European black market in 2019 and ever since, have been spreading globally. The drugs suppress the respiratory system, so people can die because they stop breathing. The symptoms of an overdose can be reversed by taking an antidote called naloxone. Nitazenes first made UK news in 2021 when an 18-year-old took a non-fatal overdose. Since then, the drug has surged in popularity, becoming the newest killer on the streets. Officially, more than 400 deaths plus many non-fatal overdoses were linked to nitazenes in the UK between June 2023 and January 2025, according to Government data. In Estonia, nitazenes were involved in 48 per cent of all drug-induced deaths in 2023 (56 of 117), up from 39 per cent in 2022, the European Drug Report 2025 states. In Latvia, nitazene-linked fatalities rose from 29 per cent in 2022 to 38 out of 130 in 2023 -doubling the country's total drug death toll in just a year, the same similar data show. The increasing availability of these and other synthetic drugs led the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) to warn in August 2024 that 'there has never been a more dangerous time to take [illegal] drugs'. And just today, health experts from Scotland warned Nitazenes could be behind a sharp rise in suspected drug deaths. An update from Public Health Scotland (PHS) revealed there were 312 suspected drug-related fatalities between March and May, a 15 per cent rise on the previous quarter. The latest Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response report, said potent synthetic opioids known a nitazenes were increasingly mixed with other drugs such as heroin. Nitazenes were found to be present in 6 per cent of all deaths and one expert said the figure was probably an "underestimate" because of issues with testing. Nitazenes 'murdered' by son 4 4 Anne Jacques of North Wales told the Journal her son, Alex Harpum, a rising opera singer, died of a nitazene overdose in 2023. Police found Xanax tablets in his room and evidence on his phone that he had bought pills illegally, which he sometimes did to help sleep while on ADHD medication. The coroner initially ruled the cause of death as unexplained cardiac arrest, or sudden adult death syndrome. Unsatisfied, Jacques researched drug contaminants and asked the coroner to test for nitazenes. Seven months after her son's death, police confirmed that his tablets had been contaminated with the potent opioid. 'I basically had to investigate my own son's death,' Jacques said. 'You feel like your child has been murdered.' Alex isn't alone, there have been clusters of fatalities in Bristol, Basildon, Coventry and the West Midlands, with nitazenes also in Glasgow. British jails are also facing an influx of deadly drugs, with 15 non-intentional drug deaths confirmed in prisons in England and Wales in 2022, according to the Independent.
Hindustan Times
30-07-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
Stronger Than Fentanyl: A Drug You've Never Heard of Is Killing Hundreds Every Year
LONDON—Fentanyl fueled the worst drug crisis the West has ever seen. Now, an even more dangerous drug is wreaking havoc faster than authorities can keep up. The looming danger is an emerging wave of highly potent synthetic opioids called nitazenes, which often pack a far stronger punch than fentanyl. Nitazenes have already killed hundreds of people in Europe and left law enforcement and scientists scrambling to detect them in the drug supply and curb their spread. The opioids, most of which originate in China, are so strong that even trace amounts can trigger a fatal overdose. They have been found mixed into heroin and recreational drugs, counterfeit painkillers and antianxiety medication. Their enormous risk is only dawning on authorities. Europe, which has skirted the kind of opioid pandemic plaguing the U.S., is now on the front line as nitazenes push into big heroin and opioid markets such as Britain and the Baltic states. At least 400 people died in the U.K. from overdoses involving nitazenes over 18 months until January of this year, according to the government. 'This is probably the biggest public health crisis for people who use drugs in the U.K. since the AIDS crisis in the 1980s,' said Vicki Markiewicz, executive director for Change Grow Live, a leading treatment provider for drugs and alcohol in the U.K. Particularly worrying, she said, is that most people take nitazenes unwittingly, as contaminants in other drugs. The U.K.'s National Crime Agency has warned that partly due to nitazenes, 'there has never been a more dangerous time to take drugs.' In the U.S., where fentanyl dominated the opioid market, nitazenes had as of last year been found in at least 4,300 drug seizures since 2019, usually in fentanyl mixtures, and have led to dozens of deaths. But reporting on the drugs is sparse and relies on self-reporting. Many overdose toxicology tests don't include nitazenes. The Drug Enforcement Administration has warned that Mexican cartels could use their existing relations with China-based suppliers to obtain nitazenes and funnel them into America. The most common street nitazenes are roughly 50 to 250 times as potent as heroin, or up to five times the strength of fentanyl. They are likely much more prevalent than official statistics suggest, due to limited testing. Authorities say official death tolls are almost certainly undercounts. On an early summer morning in 2023, police arrived at Anne Jacques's door in north Wales. Her 23-year-old son had died in his sleep in his student apartment in London, they told her. Her son, Alex Harpum, was a rising opera singer and healthy. Police found Xanax tablets in his room, and evidence on his phone that he had bought pills illegally, which Jacques said he occasionally did to sleep while on medication for his attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Yet, the coroner established the cause of death as unexplained cardiac arrest, known as sudden adult death syndrome. Jacques, not satisfied with the explanation, researched drug contaminants and requested the coroner test for nitazenes. Seven months after her son's death, police confirmed that his tablets had been contaminated with the potent opioid. 'I basically had to investigate my own son's death,' Jacques said. 'You feel like your child has been murdered.' Harpum wasn't alone. While most known overdoses affect heroin users, nitazenes have also been found in party drugs like cocaine, ketamine and ecstasy, in illegal nasal sprays and vapes, and detected in benzodiazepines like Xanax and Valium. In May, two young Londoners died after taking what authorities believe was oxycodone laced with nitazenes upon returning home from a nightclub. 'I basically had to investigate my own son's death,' says Anne Jacques. Dealers aren't trying to kill customers, but the globalized drug trade leads gangs to traffic a wider variety of increasingly potent substances, partly because smuggling gets easier as the volumes involved shrink. U.K. National Crime Agency Deputy Director Charles Yates said dealers are driven mainly by greed. 'They buy potent nitazenes cheaply and mix them with bulking agents such as caffeine and paracetamol to strengthen the product being sold and make significant profits,' he said. Nitazenes are also ravaging West Africa as a prevalent ingredient in kush, a synthetic drug that has killed thousands of people and led Sierra Leone and Liberia to declare national emergencies. 'It's an international concern. They have been detected on every continent,' said Adam Holland, an expert on synthetic opioids at the University of Bristol. 'You can produce them with different chemicals that are relatively easy to get a hold of, and you can do it in an underground laboratory. And because they're so potent, you need less for the same size of market so they're easier to smuggle.' Chinese suppliers sell nitazenes openly on online marketplaces sometimes using photos of young women as their profile picture. They list phone numbers, social-media handles and business addresses linked to China or Hong Kong. The drugs are sometimes labeled as research chemicals but also often explicitly as nitazenes. The Wall Street Journal found nearly 100 profiles on the Pakistan-based web marketplace TradeKey selling different types of nitazenes, including etonitazenes, estimated to have 15 times the potency of fentanyl. Four suppliers told a Journal reporter they could send any quantity to Europe, including the U.K., and promised they could evade customs. A spokesperson for TradeKey said the company has a 'zero-tolerance policy toward the listing or sale of any controlled substances, including synthetic opioids such as nitazenes.' It said it had added various types of nitazenes to its banned products registry and blocked hundreds of accounts seen to violate its compliance rules. On 'rare occasions,' a prohibited product may pass initial approvals and get listed, but the company worked to routinely clean the site, it said. 'We take this issue very seriously and are fully committed to ensuring our platform is not misused in any way. We also cooperate with regulatory and law enforcement bodies as needed,' the spokesperson said. Nitazenes were never approved for medical use in Europe. Developed in the 1950s, they were found in trials to cause fatal breathing problems. They were detected sporadically over the years: in a lab in Germany in 1987; in 1998 in Moscow, where they were linked to a dozen deaths; and in 2003 in Utah, where a chemist manufactured them apparently for personal use. Nitazenes appeared in drug seizures in Europe and the U.S. beginning in 2019, and began spreading quickly in Europe in 2023, their high potency leaving a trail of fatal overdoses even among seasoned drug users. In Scotland, whose population of 5.5 million has the highest overdose death rate per capita in Europe, nitazenes have been involved in 150 to 200 drug-related deaths in the past two years alone, said Austin Smith, head of policy with the Scottish Drug Forum charity. 'Imagine mixing salt in sand on a beach, it's impossible to do that evenly,' he said. Europe's medical practices have protected it from fentanyl, which first took off in the U.S. in the 1990s due to private prescriptions and aggressive marketing. However, Europe is vulnerable to opioids in ways that echo the American experience. The second big boost in fentanyl usage in the U.S. came in the 2010s, when drug cartels began adulterating the heroin supply with fentanyl. So far, nitazenes appear to be supplied by individual brokers and sellers, but Europe is rife with international drug gangs that could turn to nitazenes. 'Synthetic opioids in the U.S. have not been driven by demand, they have been driven wholesale by supply,' said Vanda Felbab-Brown, senior fellow and expert on the global opioid trade with the Brookings Institution, a think tank. 'If large criminal groups such as Albanian mafia groups, Turkish criminal groups or Italian or Mexican groups get into supplying nitazenes to Europe on a large scale, we can anticipate a massive public healthcare catastrophe.' They may be prompted to do so. Since the Afghan Taliban most recently banned in 2022 the cultivation of poppies, which supplied about 90% of the world's heroin, experts have warned that a heroin shortage could lead gangs to cut the drug with other, more dangerous substances. Nitazenes are at the top of the list. 'If the heroin supply is interrupted, that will have a knock-on effect on drug use within Europe, and on things users can turn to in the absence of heroin, such as synthetic opioids and synthetic crystal meth,' said Andrew Cunningham, expert on drug markets with the European Union Drugs Agency. The tiny nation of Estonia has firsthand experience of what that is like. When the Taliban first banned poppy cultivation in 2000, fentanyl flooded the Estonian drug market as a replacement for heroin. Drug-related deaths grew fourfold in two years, and put the Baltic country in a fentanyl grip that it was unable to shake. For a decade, from 2007 to 2017, Estonia had the highest per capita overdose death rate in Europe. And Estonia is already feeling the influx of nitazenes, which since 2023 have been involved in nearly half of all drug-induced deaths in the tiny Baltic nation. When a batch of drugs contaminated with nitazenes hits the streets, it often results in a cluster of overdoses. Late last year, about 80 people overdosed and needed medical treatment in Dublin over a weekend. In March of this year, at least 31 users overdosed over a few days in Camden, north London. One of them, Tina Harris, 41, who has been using heroin since her early teens, said she bought a £5 bag of what she thought was fentanyl from a drug dealer in Camden. 'He told me, 'be careful because it's strong.' I thought he was just chatting sh—,' she said. After smoking the drug, she passed out, and survived only because a friend administered shots of naloxone, an antidote that users carry for emergencies, until the ambulance arrived. Harris woke up in the hospital, rattling from withdrawal. Since then, she has twice saved the life of friends who mistakenly took nitazenes, by providing naloxone and CPR. She has become increasingly worried about the drug supply in London, but said her addiction is impossible to kick. 'It's a devil's trap,' she said. Write to Sune Engel Rasmussen at and Ming Li at
BBC News
21-07-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Northamptonshire health teams issue contaminated drugs warning
A county's public health leaders have issued a warning about contaminated drugs circulating at festivals and parties over the North and West Northamptonshire councils said some drugs bought off the street or online could be as much as 10 times stronger and could cause serious harm or 18-year-old told the BBC he saw a friend hospitalised after taking contaminated Bethea, director of public health at North Northamptonshire Council, said: "The risks to inexperienced or recreational drug users are increased by the rapidly changing drug market." The councils warned that by buying illegal drugs, users "can't be sure what is in them or the effect they will have". Ms Bethea said: "Festivals are a particular setting of concern given there can be a number of street drugs circulating at these events, and those that take them may be inexperienced or experimenting for the first time, and so have low tolerance."She said there were particular issues with potent synthetic opioids, such as nitazenes, being mis-sold, and high availability of contaminated Gay, director of public health at West Northamptonshire Council, said: "Your drugs may look the same, even if they are contaminated, so I urge all recreational drug users to stop and think, and if they go ahead then to abide by the advice."The councils are working with charities such as Change Grow Live and Ngage on the White, from Ngage, said: "We have young people who are ending up in A&E because of contaminated substances."It is really shocking actually how many of our young people it is affecting." 'He started seizing on the floor' Deano is a former drug user who now works with 18-year-old from Northamptonshire, who did not want to give his surname, said he started taking drugs to help him told BBC Radio Northampton's Annabel Amos: "I am a massive insomniac, always have been."Also, I've got ADHD [Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder], so they bounce off each other."So that's what I initially started using substances for."He said when buying drugs "there's always going to be a risk" they could be said when he was 16, he was with a friend, who was about his age and took what he thought was ketamine, but the substance also contained amphetamine and fentanyl - a powerful said: "He was bugging around for a bit, getting all excited because of the amphetamines and then what I assume happened is the fentanyl took over after that."He started seizing on the floor, foaming [at the mouth] and he got taken away by ambulance."It's still a shock because you don't know what they've taken."His friend later recovered and now Deano is working towards rebuilding his life and has applied to college. Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Daily Mirror
10-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Mirror
Escape To The Country star's final hours as routine procedure turned sinister
An Escape To The Country star tragically died while undergoing a routine medical procedure just hours after being admitted to hospital due to vomiting blood An Escape To The Country star's cause of death has been confirmed after an agonising 24 hours. Emma Izzard, who appeared on the programme in 2021, died just one day after she was admitted to the hospital. She was rushed to Norfolk and Norwich Hospital in November last year after falling ill and vomiting blood. Norfolk Coroner's Court heard that Ms Izzard had been battling alcoholism in the lead up to her death due to a personal situation she had been quietly battling. She was admitted to the hospital on November 19, last year, due to vomiting blood. While there, she went into cardiac arrest but medics were able to resuscitate Ms Izzard, giving her a second chance. However, just one day later, she underwent a gastroscopy –which involves a tube with a camera attached being inserted into the body via the mouth in order to examine the stomach, oesophagus, and duodenum, typically used to investigate symptoms such as pain, bleeding or swallowing difficulties. It was during the routine procedure that Ms Izzard suffered another cardiac arrest. However, doctors were unable to resuscitate her again. At the inquest, it was concluded that Ms. Izzard's death resulted from an oesophageal and variceal haemorrhage, with underlying alcohol-related liver disease. Kym, Emma's ex-partner, shared poignant details: "Emma had a very strong bond with her mother." "Emma lived with her for many years and continued to look after her even when she did move out. [Emma's] alcohol levels increased when her mother was taken to hospital in July 2022, and she thought she was going to lose her. After six months of secret drinking, she wanted to stop but couldn't get the help required quickly enough and began drinking again." The inquest was told that Emma had been in rehab numerous times, but with every relapse, her drinking became more severe. Tragically, her late father also battled alcoholism, dying when Emma was only a teen. Kym, reflecting on Emma's life, said: "Emma was a larger-than-life character who was very popular both in and outside of her work, and she had many friends. "She was very caring but had had personal struggles earlier in her life that she was unable to deal with." Ms Izzard also sought the help from Change Grow Live (CGL), a charity for those who are dealing with alcoholism, as well as Alcoholics Anonymous. "Emma did not want to drink but it had taken a strong hold of her," Kym stated, continuing: "And she didn't and couldn't deal with her problems. Her drinking became heavier, and she became desperate." The area coroner Johanna Thompson told the court: "Emma had a history of excess alcohol consumption and had been diagnosed with alcohol-related liver disease. At the hospital, Emma was clearly presenting as very poorly. She was white, dehydrated, and was considered to have symptoms of acute alcohol withdrawal. "Sadly, after being given surgery, treatment could not save her at the end of the day." It emerged during the hearing that Ms Izzard, who worked for a charity as a general assistant, handled her daily responsibilities competently whenever she wasn't drinking. The former BBC One participant, who appeared on the programme in 2021 from Luton, Bedfordshire, had dreams of a fresh start with her partner in Norfolk, lured by the promise of "clean air" and a "slower pace of life." Yet, following their move to North Walsham, the two ultimately went their separate ways but have maintained a close friendship.
