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Nitazenes: The Super-Potent Synthetic Opioids Now Spreading Across the United States

6/21/2026

A class of super-potent synthetic opioids called nitazenes is spreading across the United States, adding a new and potentially more lethal layer to a drug crisis that has already devastated families across the country.

The spread arrives as communities continue to grapple with an opioid epidemic that, for many Americans, began not on a street corner but with a legitimate prescription.

What Nitazenes Are Nitazenes are synthetic opioids — manufactured in a laboratory rather than derived from the opium poppy.

The word "super-potent" in that description is what matters most: potency in an opioid determines how small a dose can cause an overdose and how little room for error exists for someone who encounters the drug without knowing it is there.

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