Evolving use of recreational drugs in UK—nitazenes and xylazine

Minerva, 14 OctoberNeeds opening sentence to Minerva RefMinerva reports that more than 10% of people admitted to coronary care units had recently used recreational drugs.1Although traditional recreational drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and amphetamines are still prevalent in the UK, nitazenes should not be ignored. Nitazenes are potent synthetic opioids234 that have been linked to deaths from adulterated heroin.5 In the UK, nitazenes are also being used in combination with xylazine. Xylazine is a non-opioid veterinary anaesthetic that causes severe central nervous system (CNS) depression.The Toxicology Unit, Imperial College London, conducts analysis on behalf of coroners and covers five London jurisdictions and Suffolk, handling around 2500 cases a year. Since June 2023 to date, the unit has encountered over a dozen illicit drug use cases in which nitazenes have been detected in postmortem blood. Nitazenes have been seen in cases involving illicitly obtained tablets (alprazolam and oxycodone) and predominantly among…
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