Advertisements appear to show off nitazenes for sale (Picture: Getty)
Thousands of posts advertising a drug deadlier than heroin have flooded popular online sites and offered to ship to the UK.
Advertisements for nitazenes – a synthetic opioid more than fifty time stronger than heroin – were discovered on SoundCloud and X.
Evidence posted by the BBC suggests suppliers in China are openly advertising the deadly drugs, which they send in the post.
Nearly 3,000 advertisements were found on SoundCloud alone, dating back a year. The posts have since been removed, and SoundCloud said it was targeted by ‘bad actors’.
Hundreds of posts were also found on X, including one from a supplier who was indicted and sanctioned in the US for shipping 15kg of nitazenes from China.
Metro.co.uk has reached out to both X and SoundCloud for further comment on the issue.
The ads on SoundCloud shared the contact information for a dealer (Picture: BBC)
One claimed to have ‘100% pass through customs’ (Picture: BBC)
First detected in white powder sampled from a Wakefield taxi in April 2021, nitazenes have since been detected in cannabis, crack cocaine, heroin and even vapes.
One source described the drug as bringing an ‘epidemic of death’ to the UK.
In March, the UK announced a further ban on synthetic opioids, including nitazenes, in a bid to tackle the issue.
But Ester Kincová, the Public Affairs and Policy Manager at Transform Drug Policy Foundation, says it won’t fix the problem.
She told Metro.co.uk: ‘The government needs to support harm reduction measures and no longer criminalize people who use drugs or who have them in possession for personal use.’
Drug charity workers have already seen people coughing up blood and dying from the horrific drugs.
Where to get help for drug addiction
If you or a loved one are battling addiction, there are resources available to help.
The NHS recommends first speaking to your GP – they can discuss your problems with you and get you into treatment.
They may offer you treatment at the practice or refer you to your local drug service.
If you’re not comfortable talking to a GP, you can approach your local drug treatment service yourself.
Visit the Frank website to find support near you.
If you’re having trouble finding the right sort of help, call the Frank drugs helpline on 0300 123 6600. They can talk you through all your options.
Last year in Dublin, more than 40 overdoses were reported after nitazenes were mixed into the local drug supply.
In October 2023, a raid into a Waltham Forest drug factory recovered an astounding 150,000 nitazene tablets, resulting in the arrest of 11 people.
Opioids include side effects such as cognitive deterioration and confusion, gastrointestinal upset and constipation, insomnia, blurred vision, difficulty urinating, and erectile dysfunction.
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They also depress respiratory drive – in other words, they affect your ability to breathe – which can cause death.
One teenager died after taking a fatal dose of a nitazene – which he thought was sleep medication.
Will Helstrip, 18, died in 2022 after ordering opioid-laced medication from the dark web.
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