What are the dangers of nitazines? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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When someone is brought to the ED having overdosed, the clock is ticking to identify what substance they’ve used and then attempt to reverse it. Johns Hopkins substance use disorder expert Eric Strain says that’s why the new street opioid adulterant, nitazine, is potentially quite a problem.

Strain: There are test strips that you can use to detect nitazines, commercial ones but I think more tellingly is that somebody's probably going to use something that they think is either heroin or fentanyl and it's got new nitazine in it. Because there's a bunch of different nitazines, because it's so potent they could overdose on that easily. They could have respiratory depression, so then what you would typically do is give naloxone but you're going to have to give a lot more naloxone to reverse that effect.     :31

Strain says nitazines are up to 40 times more potent than fentanyl and there are various types, complicating identification and reversal. He encourages people to use test strips before they take a drug. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.