There’s a new drug being added to opioids bought on the street, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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First was heroin, then came fentanyl and its variations, then came xylazine. Now nitazines, a class of drugs that augment the action of opioids, are being found in drugs trafficked illegally, and they’re deadly. Eric Stain, a substance use disorder expert at Johns Hopkins, explains.

Strain: We were talking about nitazine which is actually a number of different drugs that are very potent opioid agonists. What we do know is that different drugs are getting into the drug supply typically mixed with opioids. People may be thinking that they're getting heroin and most of us now have heard they're actually getting fentanyl, and similar to that now we're seeing other drugs like nitazine or another one is xylazine which is in those drug supplies. We're now needing to deal with those other drugs.           :33

Strain says just like its cousins, nitazines have high potential for addiction. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.