” Demand for opioid treatment services, including for methadone, buprenorphine, and sluggish- release morphine treatment, may rise, but if these services are inappropriate, heroin users may switch to another opioids”, the report said, outlining the probable impact of decreased narcotic supply.
Like a switch may pose serious health risks and result to more overdoses, especially if other opioids include very strong substances like some fentanyl analogues or nitazenes that have already been discovered in some Western nations in recent years, it added.
Overdose deaths from nitazenes, a type of synthetic opioid more powerful than fentanyl, have been reported in Ireland, Britain, Estonia and Latvia, UNODC study key Angela Me told investigators.
A heroin user generally buys what they believe to be heroin, but it will have been replaced, Me said, with much less expensive and powerful nitazene. When testing are therefore performed following the overdose death, the substance is discovered.
Additionally, according to the towering report, cocaine supply reached a record high in 2022, the most recent year with data available. Wastewater checks revealed an increase in use in Europe while consumption in the United States appeared to be declining.