CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has written a letter to the administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration asking for more information on nitazenes, which are increasingly linked to deadly overdoses.
Morrisey is seeking information to prevent these new illicit substances from gaining a foothold across West Virginia and the United States. Nitazenes, also known as benzimidazole opioids, are said to be at least 10 times fentanyl’s strength and sometimes up to 20 percent stronger. Fentanyl is 50 times more powerful than heroin.
“We must gather all the available information out there about these illicit opioids so we can better understand the situation before it becomes the next wave of deadly substances coming into the country,” Morrisey said. “The answers to these questions are critical at a time when synthetic opioids are already killing unprecedented numbers of Americans.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently published a report of nitazenes’ increasing involvement in deadly overdoses in Tennessee. There have been similar reports of increasing numbers of death involving nitazenes in the District of Columbia.
In his letter to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, Morrisey asks how prevalent nitazene overdose deaths are in the country. He also asks where the DEA suspects the drug is from, and he asks what the agency is doing to address the issue.
"The answers to these questions are critical at a time when synthetic opioids are already killing unprecedented numbers of Americans and West Virginians in particular," Morrisey wrote in the letter.
