Stark NCA warning drug taking has never been more dangerous as death toll from super-strength nitazenes soars

Fears synthetic opioid 500 times stronger than morphine may be in recreational drugs like cocaine and MDMA

There has never been a more dangerous time to take drugs, the National Crime Agency has warned (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

There has never been a more dangerous time to take drugs after at least 284 people have died from substances spiked with super-strength synthetic opioids, the National Crime Agency has warned.

Officials have revealed they are “deeply worried” about the threat posed by new synthetic drugs called nitazenes, which can be up to 500 times stronger than morphine.

The deadly drugs, which can be so potent a dose the size of a grain of sand can be fatal, have infiltrated UK supplies and could be in recreational drugs including cocaine, MDMA, amphetamines as well as cut into heroin supplies.

The NCA issued a stark warning to would-be users as they revealed deaths have soared, with 284 lives lost since the high-strength substances arrived in Britain last June.

However the true death toll is likely to be far higher due to inadequate testing and delays in the forensic process.

NCA director general Graeme Biggar said: “We do feel really strongly that there has never been a more dangerous time to be taking drugs.

“You can absolutely die from the very first time you take it [nitazene] and you very often don’t know you are taking it.”

National Crime Agency director-general Graeme Biggar has outlined the organisation’s annual assessment of threats to the UK (Aaron Chown/PA) (PA Wire)

Outlining the NCA’s annual assessment of crime threats to Britain, he said: “The number of people that have died from the misuse of drugs has increased by 60% over the last 10 years and tripled over the last 30 years.

“That gives us one of the highest death rates for drugs in Europe.”

He said the crime agency is urgently prioritising the fight against nitazenes amid fears their arrival could usher in a US-style drug deaths epidemic.

They are also working to ramp up testing and increase access to overdose reversal drug naloxone.

“We are deeply worried about it,” he told The Independent. “There is a real challenge here, as the US and Canada have both seen on a much greater level.

“We have not yet seen it accelerating. It came in June and it has been relatively steady with small peaks and troughs. It’s in pretty much every region of the UK. We have not seen the kind of exponential rising but we are worried that it will.

“That’s why we are working incredibly hard with law enforcement. Any hint of nitazenes gets top priority across the UK.”

Cheap to produce in China and easy to smuggle into Britain via the post, he called for international efforts to stop the substance taking hold.

“This does need to be an international effort as much as we can to reduce the risk of this really taking hold in the UK,” he added.

Musician Dylan Rocha, 21, and his mother Claire Rocha, 50, from Southampton (Claire Rocha)

In December last year The Independent found the powerful drugs had been detected in a range of substances including heroin, cocaine and counterfeit prescription anxiety medication sold as Xanax and Valium.

Musician Dylan Rocha, 21, was one of the first deaths linked to nitazene-contaminated drugs in the UK after he unwittingly purchased heroin laced with isotonitazene – which is 500 times more potent than morphine - in 2021.

Mr Rocha’s mother Claire warned the drug is a “a ticking time bomb” as she revealed he had no idea the drugs he received in the post were contaminated.

Since then deaths have surged, including inside Britain’s prisons where two men died at HMP Lewes in summer 2022.

The pair died after falling unconscious shortly after smoking isotonitazene in their cells.