Why add even more potent synthetic opioids to existing ones? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Adding the potent opioid nitazine to heroin or fentanyl is hard to understand, since it ups the likelihood you’ll kill your clientele. Eric Strain, a substance use disorder expert at Johns Hopkins, is nonplussed.

Strain: Why? That's a great question with xylazine. Why are you contaminating supply with something that produces bad effects? You can get very significant skin lesions if you use xylazine. It doesn't really make sense but people are doing it.     :19

Strain notes that when someone uses an opioid like nitazine, reversing it is difficult.

Strain: You can precipitate withdrawal so that rather than having an excessive agonist effect opiate effect, high respiratory depression all those things suddenly you make somebody go into withdrawal, which is extremely uncomfortable. They can be angry about that but it keeps them alive.          :17

At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.