{"id":88630,"date":"2025-05-09T23:42:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T23:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/88630\/"},"modified":"2025-05-09T23:42:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T23:42:13","slug":"warning-over-dangerous-synthetic-opioid-found-in-fake-imported-pharmaceutical-drugs-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/88630\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning over dangerous synthetic opioid found in fake imported pharmaceutical drugs in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fake pain relief medication<\/a> is the latest type drug found to contain a dangerous synthetic opioid in Australia.<\/p>\n

It was detected in counterfeit pharamceutical drugs<\/a> that \u201cwere almost identical in appearance to oxycodone pills,\u201d the Australian Federal Police<\/a> (AFP) said.<\/p>\n

Oxycodone pills are only legally available with a prescription from a medical professional \u2014 a popular brand of he highly-additictive severe pain medication is Endone.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today \"Download<\/a><\/p>\n

But counterfit versions of the drug, seized by police in April 2024 and February 2025, were recently found to contain nitazenes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNitazenes are an illicit and dangerous synthetic opioid which can cause serious and unpredictable health effects,\u201d the AFP said.<\/p>\n

An overdose on nitazenes can look like a loss of consciousness, shallow or stopped breathing, bluish-purple skin, and slow or erratic pulse.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe AFP have warned the public not to take counterfit medications, after multiple drug seizures have been found to contain synthetic opioids called nitazenes. Credit: AFP<\/p>\n

Nitazenes are considered 10 times more potent than fentanyl, and can be found in the form of powder, tablets, nasal sprays, and vape liquids.<\/p>\n

Eight imports have been intercepted at Australian borders during the 15 months leading to March 2025 \u2014 Canada, the UK, and Hong Kong are among the countries the drugs were sent from, with most sent through international mail.<\/p>\n

Nitazenes have also been detected in counterfeit pain relief medication discovered in NSW, QLD, VIC and the ACT in recent months.<\/p>\n

But AFP said it does not have any reason to believe that nitazenes are being manafactured in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u2018We cannot understate the dangers\u2019<\/p>\n

AFP Acting Assistant Commissioner Paula Hudson said the number of seizures of counterfit medication containing nitazenes has called for a fresh warning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no safe dosage when it comes to nitazene,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot understate the dangers which surround any use of this illicit and highly potent drug.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you choose to take it, you are gambling with your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

She warned that those who take the drug are not the only ones at risk of its dangerous side effects.<\/p>\n

Synthetic opioids are so potent that frontline workers, such as nurses, doctors, and law enforcement officers, can be exposed to their dangerous health impacts when treating people who consume them, Hudson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who consume counterfeit pharmaceuticals have no idea what they are putting in their body and the potential health impacts they could face,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hudson warned people to only consume pharmaceuticals which have been prescribed and dispensed by registered health practitioners and pharmacists.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fake pain relief medication is the latest type drug found to contain a dangerous synthetic opioid in Australia.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[42175,188,535,105,388,4326,3912,12,1093,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-88630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-australian-federal-police-afp","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-drugs","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-lifestyle","13":"tag-medication","14":"tag-medicine","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-public-health","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114480529110498659","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}