Fraser is the Drugs Advocacy and Support Adviser at Release, supporting people who use drugs and advocating for them both within and without treatment.

Nitazenes have seen a surge in popularity since heroin supplies began to be affected the Taliban poppy cultivation ban in 2022. Drug treatment and other healthcare services in the UK have responded by increasing naloxone provision, issuing contamination warnings, and providing harm reduction advice geared around keeping people safe from adulterants in their drugs. While this response is to be welcomed, it ignores the growing population of people who encounter nitazenes and other synthetic opioids not as contaminants, but as their drug of choice.

Advocates from Release, the UK’s oldest drug charity, will present a case study of a young person seeking treatment for their nitazene dependence. We will demonstrate the ways in which – despite much noise about the risks nitazenes pose – our current treatment provisions are woefully unprepared for meeting the needs of nitazene users: from disbelieving people about the drugs they have been using; to nitazene use going undetected by drug screenings; to significantly under-dosing nitazene users seeking OST.

In addition, in the absence of any harm reduction information being published, we will present some of our findings about these drugs sourced from online communities of people who use them – from the wide range of doses, to the varying bioavailability, and the comparative effects of these drugs compared with other opioids. Finally, we will offer our recommendations for how clinicians, drug workers, advocates and other harm-reductionists can better support people who seek treatment when using nitazenes as their drug of choice.