Researchers from USP and Unicamp have found a new opioid that is mixed with synthetic drugs sold in São Paulo. The substance is Nitazene, which is more dangerous than heroin or fentanyl. The drug was found at a bus terminal in the east of the capital of São Paulo. The place is the point of people consume K drugs.
Nitazene is a drug made in a laboratory, which is based on synthetic cannabinoids and has worried scientists and the community for its expanding power.
The opioid emerged in the 1950s in pharmaceutical research, but was never approved for use in medicine. In addition, its effects are not yet fully known.
“Nitazene was synthesized to be a medicine, but it was never used for that. In such a way that we don’t know, because a large amount has never been used for humans. We don’t have this information,” said the professor of toxicology at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at USP, Maurício Yonamine to Jornal Nacional.
The professor also states that fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin.
“These nitazene are about 10 times to 20 times more potent than fentanyl, so what we have is a drug with the potential to cause very high dependence and the potential to cause fatalities as well.”
Until 2020, the amount of K drugs seized by the state’s civil police was a few grams. In 2021, it has already gone to about 5 kilos. The following year, 51 kilos and in 2023, it was 157 kilos.
The public health network also faces consequences. At a state clinic for drug rehabilitation, 36 percent of the patients questioned admitted to having recently used K-type drugs.
Last year, the municipal secretariat documented 1,099 suspected cases of poisoning by synthetic drugs.
The professor of psychiatry at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) says that this type of drug can lead to mental disorders for those who already have this predisposition.
“They can be the trigger for the onset of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder. It has among its impacts, this effect of causing increased adrenaline in the body, which will generate fight-or-flight reactions. So we will be prepared to fight or flight. And this includes, for example, muscle tension, this thing of being more frozen, pillaged, ready to have a more aggressive reaction, if necessary”, says Thiago Marques Fidalgo, a professor in the psychiatry department at Unifesp.
The São Paulo Department of Narcotics explained that type K drugs are manufactured mainly in countries in Asia and Europe, and it is likely that nitazene is already present in these narcotics when they reach the market.
The State Department of Health highlighted that there is a center specialized in the treatment of people with problems related to the use of crack and other substances. According to the Secretariat, this unit operates 24 hours, offering screening and medical evaluation to drug addicts. If necessary, patients can be hospitalized or referred to other health services.
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