Deadly new drugs found in fake medicines in the UK

Super-strength drugs linked to hundreds of deaths have been found in samples of fake medicines bought across the UK, the BBC can reveal.

We 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.

The synthetic opioid drugs have been connected to 278 deaths across the country in a year, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA). Nitazenes can be stronger than both heroin and fentanyl, a prolific killer in the US.

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Source: BBC News, 29 October 2024