What Is ‘Frankenstein Drug’ And Why Could It Replace Fentanyl?

Mica for cartelinsider.com

In 2021, authorities in Knoxville, Tennessee faced an emergency related to synthetic opioids. Out of 218 people who died from overdose, it was found that 26 had ingested fentanyl mixed with another even more potent drug.

It was a variant of nitazenes or benzimidazoles, a group of substances that have been colloquially called ‘Frankenstein drug’ due to the possibility of making modifications in their chemical structure to increase their potency.

According to information from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), nitazenes appeared in the 1950s. A group of chemists from the Swiss company CIBA were looking to synthesize a painkiller that was more potent than morphine but did not create dependency.

Their first objective was successfully achieved, but they decided to abandon the project when they realized the strong addiction that nitazenes were capable of causing.

These substances appeared on the DEA radar in 2019, as they noticed their presence in combination with other drugs in the Midwest and southern United States.

One of the most common variations of these substances is isonitazene, known on the streets as ‘ISO’ or ‘Tony’. This presentation is typically produced in China and is five times more potent than fentanyl.

However, that is not the most lethal version of nitazenes, since that title belongs to etonitazene, a variant 10 times more potent than fentanyl and a thousand times more powerful than morphine.

Another analgesic from the benzimidazole family that the DEA identifies as stronger than fentanyl is protonitazene, whose impact can be up to twice as powerful as the drug that the Chapitos of the Sinaloa Cartel turned into their main business.

Until November 2022, US authorities identified at least nine substances derived from nitazenes, of which three are less potent than fentanyl and only two are weaker than morphine.

In recent years, states such as Florida have seen an increase in the presence of nitazenes in cases of overdose and drug seizures.

Although they have not had the same distribution and reach as fentanyl, the restrictions and operations initiated by the governments of the US and Mexico against this last substance could push criminal organizations to seek other alternatives in the drug trafficking business.

Of all the variants of nitazenes, only two – clonitazene and etonitazene – are regulated by the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of the United Nations (UN). The rest do not have, at the moment, any international control.

In addition, the proximity between chemical laboratories in China and international criminal groups such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) is a constant source of concern for authorities.

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Mica

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