In October, we worked with BBC News's Midlands & South Bureau to report super-strength drugs linked to hundreds of deaths had been found in samples of fake medicines bought across the UK.
We had found more than 100 examples of people trying to buy prescription medicines such as diazepam - commonly used to treat anxiety, muscle spasms and seizures - and instead receiving products containing nitazenes.
At that time, the synthetic opioid drugs had been connected to 278 deaths across the country in a year, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA). Nitazenes could be stronger than both heroin and fentanyl, a prolific killer in the US.
Martin Raithelhuber, an illicit synthetic drug expert from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said the BBC’s findings were a “very worrying development”.
A government spokesperson said it was “securing our borders from the threat” through “world-leading intelligence, dedicated cross-government taskforce and extensive international networks”.
The contaminated substances were identified in anonymous samples submitted to WEDINOS, the only national drug-checking service in the UK.
It said the fake medicines looked like "the same kind of packet you might get from your chemist on the high street" but were "most likely purchased from illicit online pharmacies".
We analysed published sample results, which had been submitted anonymously to the UK’s only national drug testing service WEDINOS, run by Public Health Wales. The service recorded what the person submitting the substance said they had intended to buy and their “purchase intent”.
The analysis revealed 130 instances between August 2023 and September 2024 where people tried to buy medicines that were available by prescription, which were shown to have been contaminated with nitazenes. A further 34 samples in the same time period, were confirmed to be heroin contaminated with nitazenes.
Many of the contaminated substances were purporting to be benzodiazepines, such as diazepam, and insomnia treatments including temazepam and zolpidem. There were also examples of nitazenes found in substances sold as promethazine, an allergy medication.
Diazepam is also sometimes used non-medically. The substances were predominantly submitted to WEDINOS as tablets, but were also submitted in other forms.
NB: As the service said itself, WEDINOS data were not a definitive and exhaustive way of finding out the prevalence of synthetic opioids because the samples were sent in voluntarily, but they revealed some of the patterns and trends emerging, including in this instance, that nitazenes were being found in so-called fake medicines.
- Nitazenes were first developed in the 1950s as a pain-killing medication but were so potent and addictive they had never been approved for medical or therapeutic use
- Injected, inhaled or swallowed, mixing them with other drugs and alcohol was extremely dangerous and significantly increased the risk of overdose and death
- The UK Government planned to make all types of nitazenes Class A drugs with new legislation. Fifteen named synthetic opioids were reclassified in March 2024.
- Our analysis of the results of drug samples submitted anonymously to, then tested by, the UK’s only national drug testing service, WEDINOS - run by Public Health Wales, from 17 August 2023 to 17 September 2024
- Details of the 169 drug samples found by WEDINOS to contain synthetic opioids from 17 August 2023 to 17 September 2024
- A breakdown by UK region of the numbers of drug samples found by WEDINOS to contain synthetic opioids from 17 August 2023 to 17 September 2024, and whether the synthetic opioids were found contaminating so-called “fake medicines”, heroin, or other substances
- Information on the contaminated substances - the “fake medicines” - to assist reporting including: names of drugs which were contaminated with synthetic opioids; the intended use of the genuine pharmaceuticals and the source of that information eg NHS website. There was also a guide as to whether each drug was a brand name or trademark to assist reporting
- The most recent figures recording the numbers of deaths across the UK confirmed as involving nitazenes by region, according to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and National Crime Agency (NCA)
- A list of the known variations of these highly-potent new drugs, and an estimation of how strong some variants were in comparison to heroin - eg N-Pyrrolidino-etonitazene was thought to be 500 times stronger than heroin.
We produced this story pack and this dataset.
- Anne Jacques (she/her), mother of the late Alex Harpum
- Bill Harpum (he/him), Alex Harpum’s brother
- Martin Raithelhuber (he/him), Illicit Synthetic Drug Expert, Laboratory and Scientific Services, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
- Professor Harry Sumnall (he/him), Professor in Substance Use in the School of Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University
- Professor Rick Lines (he/him), head of the substance misuse programme at Public Health Wales, which ran WEDINOS
Statements
- A Government spokesperson
- Charles Yates (he/him), National Crime Agency (NCA) deputy director
- Background from Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
The Shared Data Unit makes data journalism available to the wider news industry as part of the BBC Local News Partnership. Stories written by partners based on this research included:
- Clydebank Post: Drug stronger than heroin found hidden in 'fake medicines' in Greater Glasgow 2 November 2024
- Glasgow Times: Drug stronger than heroin found hidden in 'fake medicines' in Glasgow 2 November 2024
- Northern Echo: Fake medicines filled with deadly drugs stronger than heroin found in North East 30 October 2024
The report was among the most-read BBC online reports of the day and featured across BBC local radio throughout 1 March 2023.
BBC News's Midlands correspondent Navtej Johal delivered TV packages for BBC Breakfast, BBC News at 1pm and Wales Today, produced by BBC Shared Data Unit senior journalist Alex Homer, which were also used by the News Channel throughout the day with live guests discussing the report. Navtej Johal also carried out a two-way interview to discuss the story on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and on BBC Radio Wales. The report was used throughout breakfast on Radio 5Live with our interviewees as live guests and was used across national news summaries including BBC Radio 2, 3, 4 and 6 Music and on the news playlist by BBC Sounds on the BBC News UK TikTok and Instagram accounts. The report was also translated for use online by BBC Cymru Fyw.
The report and an audio clip sequence from our interviewees was broadcasted by BBC local radio stations covering Berkshire, Newcastle, Tees, Kent and Jersey and the report was also covered in bulletins by BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Radio Ulster, BBC Radio Foyle and BBC local radio stations covering London, Merseyside, Essex, Sheffield, Sussex, Gloucestershire, Cornwall, Nottingham, Coventry & Warwickshire, Surrey, Shropshire and Northampton.
- Daily Mail: Deadly Frankenstein opioids from China hundreds of time stronger than regular painkillers are flooding UK 29 October 2024
- The Independent: Lethal super-strength opioids found in 130 samples of fake prescription medicines 29 October 2024
- The Mirror: 'My son was killed by black market anxiety pills - change is needed to stop more dying' 29 October 2024
- MSN.com: Lethal super-strength opioids found in 130 samples of fake prescription medicines 29 October 2024
- VICE: Deadly Opioid Nitazene Discovered in Fake Prescription Medications 30 October 2024