Experts are perplexed by how strong the drugs are – with some quoted as saying they are anywhere from 20 to 100 times stronger than heroin, dependent on the dose.
It’s something that is concerning those on the ground in New Zealand.
Know Your Stuff, Aotearoa’s legal drug-checking programme, said nitazenes have been detected in New Zealand as early as 2022. In September 2023, metonitazene (purchased as oxycodone) led to a death and several harm incidents.
Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm told The Front Page it is particularly worrying when they’re sold as other drugs.
“Particularly in Europe, from what I hear from people on the ground, adulteration of benzodiazepines. Over there, street benzos are super cheap and we’ve seen some of that occur here as well. And in Australia, nitazenes are turning up as methamphetamine and MDMA.
“We’re already experiencing loss of life and we’re very worried about what the coming months or years might mean for us,” she said.
When Helm visited Canada early last year, she saw the effects of fentanyl and nitazenes firsthand.
“When I walked through the streets of Vancouver and Toronto and saw people overdosed and no one helping them, I grew very worried about our communities that would be more likely to be impacted. I really don’t want that for our people here in New Zealand,” she said.
“One of our staff members experienced the loss of a number of her friends at university in Canada who had unwittingly taken fentanyl when they [thought they] were consuming MDMA.”
In New Zealand this year, the dangerous drug warning system High Alert detected a type of nitazene, N-Desethyletonitazene, being sold in tablets as diazepam and bromazolam in the Wellington and Tauranga regions.
Bromazolam and diazepam are benzodiazepines that are often prescribed for anxiety or sleep. But the compound found in the pills tested is instead considered to be up to 10 times stronger than fentanyl.
Work is under way to make naloxone – a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose – more accessible in the community. People can get injectable naloxone from needle exchanges, but advocates are pushing to get Pharmac to fund nasal spray naloxone (nyxoid) too.
Know Your Stuff told The Front Page New Zealand’s medical system is “woefully unprepared for a crisis” like what’s sweeping North America and Europe.
“Nyxoid is available for purchase in NZ but at about $50 per dose it’s often inaccessible for the people who need it,” the organisation said in a statement, adding that it had heard stories of Kiwis “pharmacy hopping” while on holiday in Australia, “visiting every pharmacy in Melbourne in a day to collect the free Nyxoid and flying home with it”.
While New Zealand has taken innovative steps to prevent drug-related deaths, like legalising drug testing and improving the availability of injectable naloxone, Helm said we’ve got a long way to go.
“New Zealand’s never really had an overdose strategy or plan. We’ve ignored the overdose fatalities we’ve had, we’ve rested on our laurels thinking we don’t have as many as other people,” she said.
“We also don’t have a number of the things that other countries have created – for example, overdose prevention centres or supervised drug use spaces. We created a proposal for one in conjunction with a number of the key players in inner-city Auckland.”
Helm points to the success across the Tasman of the Uniting Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (Uniting MSIC) in Sydney – a practical health service that seeks to connect with people who inject drugs.
Since 2001, the centre has supervised 1.28 million injections, managed 11,205 overdoses, made 22,000 referrals to ongoing care and support – and has had zero fatalities at its premises.
Uniting MSIC said it has taken pressure off emergency services, with an early study showing the number of ambulance call-outs to Kings Cross dropping by 80 per cent.
“They are all over Canada and a number of other places. There’s tons of evidence. I’ve been around for a very long time at this point, so the fact we don’t have one is political, historical, an anomaly and a bit of a pain really,” Helm said.
People can get free nitazene test strips from the Drug Foundation on its website. Test strips and shipping are free within New Zealand and are shipped within three working days.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about nitazenes and what more can be done to prevent overdoses in New Zealand.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
