America's next wave of opioid misery is already here

When a sample from an overdose victim was sent her way, Alexandra Evans, a forensic chemist at the Public Health Laboratory in Washington, was alarmed. A new drug had hit the city’s streets, and it was up to ten times more powerful than fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that accounts for the majority of US overdose deaths.

In recent weeks, syringes tested by forensic chemists under the city’s needle exchange programme have confirmed the spread of this powerful new family of narcotics across the capital. Known as nitazenes, these new, more potent synthetic opioids are arriving just as the city grapples with the epidemic of addiction sweeping America, with deaths from drug overdose surging to record levels.

“It’s definitely concerning and the timing is so unfortunate