The Irish Prison Service (IPS) has raised an emergency warning following a fatal overdose in an anonymous prison caused by the drug nitazene. According to the forensics conducted by the HSE’s National Drug Treatment Centre Laboratory, the substance was confirmed as a powerful synthetic opioid which can be taken orally or as powder.
As a reaction to the appearance of nitazene, IPS is liaising closely with HSE, and assuring that all prison healthcare teams possess ample supplies of naloxene for potential urgent medical intervention. The institution is actively promoting prisoner awareness of the risk of unauthorised drugs and ramping up vigilance in all prison premises. In this regard, the IPS launched a hotline and mobile line for anonymous information sharing on drug trafficking within the prison environment.
A general alert on nitazene tablets had been raised to the public by HSE a month prior, following the discovery of nitazene type opioids in fake benzodiazepine tablets which followed overdoses and a rise in hospital admissions in Dublin, Galway, and the midwest.
Upon increasing reports of serious overdoses among homeless communities in central Dublin last November, HSE’s National Social Inclusion Office initiated an urgent survey of different intelligence sources to discern any shifts in Dublin’s drug market. Last year, nitazenes were linked to 77 overdose incidents in Dublin and Cork, monitored by the HSE between 9th and 12th of November.
Forensic Science Ireland’s examination of a sample collected by the gardaí on November 10 affirmed the entry of nitazenes, detected as a light-brown substance in Dublin’s heroin market. HSE reacted by announcing a significant warning to the city’s drug users. The substance was later verified as N-Pyrrolidino protonitazene, an unprecedented discovery in Ireland which has since been closely observed by the EU Drugs Agency.