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New York Post
4 days ago
- Health
- New York Post
Little-known synthetic opioid nitazene is up to 43 times more deadly than fentanyl, resistant to Narcan and killing young Americans
A pair of Texas friends died less than three months apart after ingesting pills laced with a dangerous new synthetic opioid, and now their mothers are begging US officials to sound the alarm on the little-known drug up to 43 times more lethal than fentanyl. The young men both died this year after swallowing different pills secretly tainted with the deadly, often Narcan-resistant opioids known as nitazenes, which have begun seeping into the US at an alarming rate. Lucci Reyes-McCallister, 22, died January 26 near Houston, Texas, after taking a pill labeled as Xanax that was actually laced with N-Pyrrolidino Protonitazene, an emerging form of nitazene. Advertisement 4 Lucci is seen baking with his mother. Youtube / City of League City TX The particular strain of the new synthetic narcotic that killed Lucci is 25 times more lethal than fentanyl, but other nitazenes are between five and 43 times stronger, depending on the type, according to the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission. The stronger the strain, the more resistant the nitazene is to the overdose antidote Narcan, as seen in Lucci's case. Advertisement 'It was the first time I'd ever heard of it,' Lucci's heartbroken mother, Grey McCallister, told The Post of nitazene. 'It took them seven rounds of Narcan to try to revive him,' she said. But Lucci never came to. 4 Lucci died in January after he took a nitazene-laced counterfeit pill. Crowder Funeral Home Advertisement Nearly six months after his death, Grey received a call from another mother in the area who revealed her son also died of the same form of nitazene. It was Lucci's friend, Hunter Clement, 21. Hunter died on April 10 after taking a nitazene-laced pill branded to look like a Percocet. A few weeks after his death, Ruthi came across a news article about the dangers of nitazenes. Advertisement 'I told my husband, 'I feel like that could be what Hunter died from,'' she recalled. Nitazenes are produced in clandestine Chinese labs and may have made their way to the cartels in Mexico using 'their existing relationships' with 'suppliers' in China, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The drug was developed over 60 years ago as an alternative to morphine, but was never approved for medical use because of its high risk of overdose. Authorities in Europe have already seen several overdoses from the synthetic narcotic and the devastating poison is now starting to hit US shores more. Last January, a Florida man confessed to distributing protonitazene that he received in the mail from labs in China, according to the IRS. Customs officers at JFK are seeing the drug coming through the airport 'at least a few times a week in quantities ranging from just a few grams to upwards of a pound or more,' Andrew Renna, Assistant Port Director for Cargo Operations at the airport, said in May. And it's all part of China's 'ongoing attack against America,' former acting DEA administrator Derek Maltz told The Post. 'As America is just now really starting to talk about fentanyl, we have now seen all these other substances that are popping up everywhere, and they're coming out of these labs in China,' Maltz said. Medical examiners in Houston and the surrounding Harris County have already seen four cases of nitazene-related overdose deaths, according to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. Advertisement 4 Hunter Clement pictured in a photo posted to his obituary. Dignity Memorial Hunter's mother, Ruthi Clement, fought through tears as she recalled finding her son that fateful night with his face down in his bed and his body cold and purple. She quickly started giving Hunter chest compressions and two doses of Narcan, but it wasn't enough to save him. 'Sometimes I get mad because I couldn't save my own son, but I do want to save other people, even if it's just one person in honor of him,' Ruthi told The Post. Traditional drug tests don't look for nitazenes since US authorities are just now learning of their existence, the two grieving mothers said. Advertisement 4 A DEA instructor holds a bag of isotonitazene pills. DEA Nitazenes are not in the standard toxicology tests used by Harris County medical examiners and the screenings are only ordered 'if there is suspected nitazene use and there is no other toxicology to explain the death,' the office said. The mothers are now warning America's youth in the hopes of saving lives. 'They could think something is clean or rather safe when it's actually pressed for something that's 20 to 40 times stronger, more deadly than fentanyl,' Grey said. Advertisement 'It just really lit a fire under me. There was no way Lucci was going to die in vain,' she added. Maltz urged the feds to run educational programs and social media awareness campaigns to meet kids on platforms 'where they are.' 'You have to educate these kids, you have to have mandatory education. The social media influencers, the athletes, the role models to speak out on social media sites with these video reels to educate the kids. That's where they are, they're not watching the news,' Maltz said.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Deadly drug stronger than fentanyl spreads rapidly across the Americas, experts warn
A little-known opioid that's deadlier than fentanyl has led to a growing number of overdose deaths in recent years. Nitazenes, a class of synthetic opioids, were originally developed as pain relievers in the 1950s, but were never approved for use due to the high overdose risk, according to a report from the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD). Starting in 2019, nitazenes (benzimidazole-opioids) began to enter the illicit drug market in Europe, where they have been reported on almost every continent. Deadly Substance Under Scrutiny As Kratom Byproduct Shows Up In Gas Stations, Smoke Shops CICAD's report suggests that "nitazene use is a growing trend in North America and that availability is likely spreading across the Americas." The most prevalent type of nitazene is isotonitazene (ISO), but at least a dozen others have been identified, the report stated. Read On The Fox News App The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) classifies ISO as a Schedule 1 drug, along with seven other nitazenes. "Nitazenes are being produced in illicit labs overseas, mostly in places like China and India, and are getting trafficked into the U.S. through the same channels used for fentanyl," Corey Gamberg, a licensed alcohol and drug counselor and executive director at the Massachusetts Center for Addiction, told Fox News Digital. Here's What Marijuana Really Does To The Developing Brain, According To A Psychiatrist Because they're synthetic and cheap to make, they've become a popular option for illegal manufacturers, the expert noted. "As authorities crack down on fentanyl, traffickers pivot to new synthetic opioids like nitazenes to get around enforcement," Gamberg went on. "These drugs are cheap to make and easy to move. It's a pattern we've seen before, and it's repeating itself now." Nitazenes are available in pills, powders, sprays and other forms. They can be snorted, smoked, injected or taken orally. The biggest risk is potency, as some types of nitazenes are several times stronger than fentanyl. Dr. Jonathan Avery, vice chair of addiction psychiatry at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, confirmed that nitazenes can be hundreds of times stronger than morphine and up to 10 times more potent than fentanyl, "making even tiny doses deadly." In addition to potentially fatal overdoses, the drugs are known to cause dependency, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, disorientation, loss of consciousness, cardiac arrest and seizures, according to the CICAD report. The other issue is that people usually don't know they're taking them. "Nitazenes are often mixed into heroin, pressed pills or even stimulants — so someone might think they're using one thing and end up taking something completely different," Gamberg cautioned. "That unpredictability is what makes them so deadly." Adding to the danger of nitazenes is that testing is very limited, according to Dr. Ryan Marino, a medical toxicologist at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio. "Test strips are available that can help people screen things like powdered drugs and pills for the presence of nitazenes, but more definitive testing is limited to more advanced toxicology labs, and also limited by cost and turnaround time," he told Fox News Digital. "While test strips are useful, they are not a definitive way to rule out nitazenes in drugs, and more advanced testing for nitazenes is not widely available, even in post-mortem testing." Routine hospital and workplace drug screens do not reliably detect nitazenes, according to Avery. Click Here To Sign Up For Our Health Newsletter "Enforcement is difficult because producers constantly tweak chemical structures to evade laws and standard tests," he said. To prevent deadly overdoses, Avery called for specialized testing and rapid drug‑checking tools to identify nitazenes in the street supply. For more Health articles, visit "Naloxone (Narcan) can reverse nitazene overdoses, but multiple doses may be needed because of their potency," he said. "Public awareness, widespread naloxone distribution and rapid drug‑checking are key to preventing deaths."Original article source: Deadly drug stronger than fentanyl spreads rapidly across the Americas, experts warn
Fox News
05-08-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Deadly drug stronger than fentanyl spreads rapidly across the Americas, experts warn
A little-known opioid that's deadlier than fentanyl has led to a growing number of overdose deaths in recent years. Nitazenes, a class of synthetic opioids, were originally developed as pain relievers in the 1950s, but were never approved for use due to the high overdose risk, according to a report from the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD). Starting in 2019, nitazenes (benzimidazole-opioids) began to enter the illicit drug market in Europe, where they have been reported on almost every continent. CICAD's report suggests that "nitazene use is a growing trend in North America and that availability is likely spreading across the Americas." The most prevalent type of nitazene is isotonitazene (ISO), but at least a dozen others have been identified, the report stated. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) classifies ISO as a Schedule 1 drug, along with seven other nitazenes. "Nitazenes are being produced in illicit labs overseas, mostly in places like China and India, and are getting trafficked into the U.S. through the same channels used for fentanyl," Corey Gamberg, a licensed alcohol and drug counselor and executive director at the Massachusetts Center for Addiction, told Fox News Digital. Because they're synthetic and cheap to make, they've become a popular option for illegal manufacturers, the expert noted. "As authorities crack down on fentanyl, traffickers pivot to new synthetic opioids like nitazenes to get around enforcement," Gamberg went on. "These drugs are cheap to make and easy to move. It's a pattern we've seen before, and it's repeating itself now." Nitazenes are available in pills, powders, sprays and other forms. They can be snorted, smoked, injected or taken orally. The biggest risk is potency, as some types of nitazenes are several times stronger than fentanyl. "These drugs are cheap to make and easy to move. It's a pattern we've seen before, and it's repeating itself now." Dr. Jonathan Avery, vice chair of addiction psychiatry at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, confirmed that nitazenes can be hundreds of times stronger than morphine and up to 10 times more potent than fentanyl, "making even tiny doses deadly." In addition to potentially fatal overdoses, the drugs are known to cause dependency, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, disorientation, loss of consciousness, cardiac arrest and seizures, according to the CICAD report. The other issue is that people usually don't know they're taking them. "Nitazenes are often mixed into heroin, pressed pills or even stimulants — so someone might think they're using one thing and end up taking something completely different," Gamberg cautioned. "That unpredictability is what makes them so deadly." Adding to the danger of nitazenes is that testing is very limited, according to Dr. Ryan Marino, a medical toxicologist at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio. "Test strips are available that can help people screen things like powdered drugs and pills for the presence of nitazenes, but more definitive testing is limited to more advanced toxicology labs, and also limited by cost and turnaround time," he told Fox News Digital. "While test strips are useful, they are not a definitive way to rule out nitazenes in drugs, and more advanced testing for nitazenes is not widely available, even in post-mortem testing." Routine hospital and workplace drug screens do not reliably detect nitazenes, according to Avery. "Enforcement is difficult because producers constantly tweak chemical structures to evade laws and standard tests," he said. To prevent deadly overdoses, Avery called for specialized testing and rapid drug‑checking tools to identify nitazenes in the street supply. For more Health articles, visit "Naloxone (Narcan) can reverse nitazene overdoses, but multiple doses may be needed because of their potency," he said. "Public awareness, widespread naloxone distribution and rapid drug‑checking are key to preventing deaths."
