Exclusive:Revealed: The dangerous new synthetic drug already behind 64 deaths in Scotland

A dangerous and highly potent new synthetic drug risks putting “significant strain” on Scotland’s emergency services in the event of a cluster of overdoses, a senior forensics policing expert has warned. 

Fiona Douglas, director of forensic services at the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), warned that because drug users took the new opioids, known as nitazenes, “unexpectedly” along with other drugs, such as heroin, it led to a “substantial risk of overdose, drug-related hospitalisation and death”. 

In a briefing paper to be presented to the full board of the SPA on Thursday, Ms Douglas said there was a concern that if Scotland were to face an emergency such as that seen in Dublin in November 2023 - when nitazenes were identified in a surge of 40 drug overdoses over 36 hours - there could be a major impact. 

Police discovered a synthetic opioid of similar or higher toxicity to fentanyl at a crime scene in Essex (Photo: Adobe) | fotomaximum - stock.adobe.com

“A cluster of such events, all requiring significant medical interventions, would put significant strain on the emergency services, and national systems need to be further established to identify quickly what substances are involved in this kind of scenario, especially where there is no criminal case being investigated,” Ms Douglas stressed. 

Due to their high potency, the use of nitazenes is considered more risky, given the difficulty of measuring low quantities. In light of the unstable supply of heroin from Afghanistan, Ms Douglas said there was concern that more potent synthetic opioids could replace it, especially as low quantities can be moved more easily.

As things stand, the quantities of nitazenes being recovered and identified by police are relatively low. Out of more than 7,000 drugs cases that were tested last year by Forensic Services, only 0.2 per cent came back positive for nitazenes. However, she noted that as newer drugs, including nitazenes, tend to be more potent and present in “much lower amounts”, it makes them more difficult to detect.

Across Scotland, there have been 64 fatalities with a nitazene detected since 2022. Other drugs were involved in all those fatalities, and Ms Douglas pointed out that it has not been confirmed if the nitazenes detected were implicated in the cause of death, or whether they were incidental. 

She said while Naloxone can help reverse the effects of nitazenes, their increased potency and the concurrent use of longer acting respiratory depressant drugs mean it is likely that more doses than normal are required.

In May, Graeme Biggar, director general of the National Crime Agency, warned that at that time, the drug had been linked to almost 176 deaths across the UK, and had “real potential” to escalate and become “the major cause of deaths”.

He said: “It is hard to give any kind of assurance that we can stop this coming into the UK in a bigger way, but we need to work our hardest to make it happen as slowly as possible and as little as possible.”

The Scottish Drugs Forum has pointed out while nitazene has been found in heroin and benzodiazepines supplied in Scotland, it may be present in other drugs, including cocaine. It has provided online resources on its website for those at risk as a result of the new opioids.

It comes after figures published on Tuesday showed the number of people who died due to drug misuse in Scotland had risen 12 per cent compared to the previous 12 months.