“Demand for opiate treatment services, including for methadone, buprenorphine, and slow-release morphine treatment, may rise, but if these services are insufficient, heroin users may switch to other opioids,” the report said, outlining the potential impact of reduced opiate supply.
“Such a switch may pose significant risks to health and lead to an increase in overdoses, especially if the alternative opioids include highly potent substances such as some fentanyl analogues or nitazenes that have already emerged in some European countries in recent years,” it added.
Overdose deaths from nitazenes, a type of synthetic opioid more potent than fentanyl, have been reported in Ireland, Britain, Estonia and Latvia, UNODC research chief Angela Me told reporters.
Typically a heroin user will buy what they think is heroin but it will have been cut with far cheaper and more potent nitazenes, Me said. The drug is then detected when tests are performed after the overdose death.
The sprawling report also said cocaine supply hit a record high in 2022, the latest year for which data is available. While consumption in the United States appeared to fall, wastewater tests showed consumption increasing in Europe.
