The synthetic opioids claiming lives in the UK
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 15 February 2024
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Deaths from synthetic opioids such as nitazenes and fentanyl are low in the UK but there are fears the problem could escalate and that figures don't show the true picture of the situation. David Aaronovitch explores how dangerous these drugs are, why the opioid crisis is so bad in the US, where they come from and why a shortage of heroin in the UK could mean drug cartels switch to supplying these often fatal alternatives.
Guests: Rick Treble, Forensic chemist, and advisor to the Government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Dr Caroline Copeland, Director of the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths Alex Stevens, Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Kent Sam Quinones, journalist and author of 'Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic'
Production team: Nick Holland, Kirsteen Knight and Charlotte McDonald Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar Editor: Penny Murphy
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.6 | At the end of last year, the Metropolitan Police seized the largest stash of illegal synthetic opioids ever found in the UK, |
| 0:17.6 | comprising of over 150,000 tablets containing a substance called Nittazine, which is |
| 0:24.4 | many times more potent than heroin. |
| 0:27.3 | The National Crime Agency says 54 deaths have been linked to Nittazines in the last six months |
| 0:32.3 | of 2023. The chemicals necessary to make them are coming in the post from China. |
| 0:38.4 | The US has been in the grip of an opioid crisis since the 2010s. |
| 0:42.9 | Last year, around 110,000 people died from drug overdoses. |
| 0:48.6 | Around 70% involved another synthetic opioid, fentanyl. |
| 0:53.3 | The number of deaths from synthetic opioids such as ninsines and fentanyl in the UK is currently small, |
| 0:59.7 | but should we be worried that we're just in the foothills? |
| 1:03.1 | In other words, could an opioid crisis happen here? |
| 1:06.9 | Step into the briefing room and together we'll find out. |
| 1:13.7 | First of all, let's do the basics. |
| 1:16.2 | What are synthetic opioids and what effect do they have on the body? |
| 1:20.6 | Here with me is Rick Trouble, a forensic chemist, |
| 1:23.9 | and an advisor to the government's advisory council on the misuse of drugs. |
| 1:28.7 | Rick Treble, starting with the very basics. |
| 1:31.1 | What are synthetic opioids? |
| 1:33.1 | And how do they actually work? |
| 1:34.5 | It's been known for millennia that there are certain materials in the natural world |
| 1:39.2 | which can get into the body and affect the way the brain works. |
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