DEA Warns U.S. of Being Caught Off Guard by Deadly, Narcan-Resistant Opioid from China
Nitazene was recently uncovered during a narcotics raid on Long Island, which was the first time the substance was found in the Northeast.
Long-time Legal Insurrection readers may recall a series of posts on a class of opioids called nitazenes in the autumn of 2022.
Nitazenes are synthetic opioids developed initially in the 1950s as potential pain relievers but were never approved for clinical use due to their extreme potency and high overdose risk. These compounds can be hundreds of times more potent than morphine, and many specific nitazene-based chemicals are 20 to 43 times stronger than fentanyl.
That year, I noted that these drugs were being manufactured in China, and they were steadily finding their way into America’s illegal drug networks.
The growing danger of nitazene-tainted opioids in illicit drug supply isn’t specific to Tennessee, of course.
In June, the Washington, D.C.-based branch of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency issued an alert on the same class of drugs being spotted in that area.
“A drug that was never approved for medical use, nitazenes are being sourced from China and being mixed into other drugs,” the DEA explained in a statement.
At that time, the introduction of nitazenes caused a surge in opioid overdoses. In part, the increase was due to the fact that these compounds are resistant to Narcan, the primary antidote used in emergency medical treatment. In the case of nitazene, multiple doses may be needed because of the potency of the drug.
Not surprisingly, the Biden administration failed to control the spread. Now, in a New York Post exclusive interview, a senior DEA agent is warning that the country has been caught off guard in dealing with this crisis.
Just as authorities in the US and China increase efforts to tackle the scourge of fentanyl, the drug manufacturers, who are motivated by “greed,” shifted to start producing nitazenes — an even deadlier poison, said Drug Enforcement Administration Houston Division Special Agent in Charge Jonathan C. Pullen.
The Trump administration has hit Mexico and China with sanctions and tariffs to force the foreign governments to act against illicit drug producers responsible for the poisonings of thousands of Americans each year.
…But the Chinese pharma companies and cartels have already moved to introduce a new and stronger drug that many authorities are just now learning about, Pullen said.
“I do think we are behind the curve. But that’s been the case with these synthetic opioids — that they shift,” he told The Post.
“And if we get into a place where then we are able to issue controls or China issues more controls on the precursor chemicals that go to these, they’ll just change the analog and it’ll go to another precursor chemical. China’s already done that,” he added.
🚨 DEA warns of a new nitazene opioid — 100× stronger than fentanyl, Narcan-resistant & already driving overdose deaths.
📞 #PoisonHelp: 1-800-222-1222
— FL Poison Control (@FloridaPoison) September 16, 2025
Shravani Durbhakula, MD, associate professor of Anesthesiology, Division of Pain Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, warns that the flood of nitazenes into the illegal drug market is a “public health emergency” because it is routinely mixed with other opioid compounds.
“Many people consuming nitazenes don’t even know they’re taking them,” Durbhakula said. “These substances are often adulterants in pills sold as other opioids, making public education more important than ever.
“We also want to stress that this is not just a drug issue; it is a public health emergency. Addressing it will require collaboration between clinicians, public health officials, law enforcement and community organizations to implement harm-reduction strategies, support addiction treatment, and raise awareness about these evolving threats,” she added.
The medical recommendations for this situation include access to new test strips that can detect nitazenes, prescribing Narcan for at-risk patients, and education about counterfeit pills.
However, the Trump administration is open to using new and spectacular drug-control approaches.
Trump: Military Conducted Second Strike on ‘Narcoterrorists’ From Venezuela https://t.co/AzeeJ1bTFF
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) September 16, 2025
Reports indicate a stash of nitazene was recently found for the first time in the Long Island area, so its presence continues to spread.
“It’s alarming,” Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino said. “We haven’t come across this compound anywhere in the entire Northeast.”
I sure hope there are even more kinetic strikes as part of this innovative new approach to end the poisoning of our people.
Personally, I am looking forward to more "kinetic strikes" on boats bringing this poison from Mexico/China into our country. https://t.co/V5CogAP7Re
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) September 16, 2025
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Comments
I’m not seeing a problem if you’re not using illegal narcotics. If you are then you are doing it to yourself and it’s none of my business
From what I understand, they’re manufacturing a LOT of ‘knock off’ prescription pills that are spiked with this poison. You can brush it off if you like, but a LOT of people, especially young people, go through a phase where they play around with drugs. They’re OD’ing in large numbers when all they’re looking for is a little buzz, or to escape the pressure, or to forget, etc. They don’t deserve to die for that.
And it very well might become your business when China decides their decades-long ‘Opium War 2.0’ has hollowed out our fighting age youth sufficiently for them to take the step of full frontal military assault. They’re playing the long game and this is part of a larger strategy of complete subjugation.
A further concern is one of they going to start putting microscopic amounts of this stuff into “legitimate“ prescription pills, and medicines that they manufacture in China?
I would really like to see country of origin laws amended, so the prescription medication‘s and over-the-counter medication‘s are labeled as to where they’re from.
What happens when we get another incident of Tylenol tampering — this time at the factory, or by replacing a shipment?
It sounds like it’s time to take a few drums of this drug and dump it into Chinese water supplies.
Wait, they haven’t done that already with weed?
They have been spraying weed with “intensifiers” for long time now. As far back as the 80s at least it was sprayed with PCP, and other?
What’s the phrase? FAFO. Nobody forces them to take illegal drugs. And if there is a non-zero chance that the illegal drug you’re taking for that “little buzz” will kill you then well, FAFO. We’re at the point where Narcan® ain’t gonna pull their asses out of the fire if they overdose any longer. And over dose they will because it takes minute amounts to do so now and the people synthesizing these drugs apparently don’t care if they kill their customers any longer. Do they deserve to die? Nope. But there you go and here we are.
Intentional poisoning is murder or attempted murder.
but NO ONE is holding anyone down to the ground and shoving this poison down anyone’s throat. So its not murder but suicide.
These compounds are illegal.
Thee IS one absolutely succesphul way or preventing such poisoning. It is a very old and absolutely successphul method: Dads, TEACH YOUr CHILDrEN.
Teach them to avoid these compounds like the plague they are
I am not aware that ANY in my graduating high school class, 250 students, that got into any such drugs. .
Someone could also lace your food with it for sick laughs or jab you with a syringe in public (happened in France in a club).
This substance has no place in our society.
Syringe attacks seem to be de rigeur all over Europe recently.
what sort o company do you keep, and what sorts o places do you go?
learn wisdom.
Actually, the incident in France was not a club, but a citywide music festival, even larger than the one the Palis raided on Oct 7.
Paul doesn’t like your stridency, but you make an excellent point. I am sick of politicians pontificating about the scourge of tainted, illicit drugs on our street-drug-using, innocent citizens. Users need to be sent a tougher message too.
They are human beings possessed by something stronger than themselves.
The right answer is to take them out of circulation until they beat that demon. A dank shipping container for 5 years is more humane than a coffin.
“so the prescription medication‘s and over-the-counter medication‘s are labeled as to where they’re from.”
****
Likely not helpful. Current estimates that seen report that >80% of the active pharmaceutical chemicals come from China and the majority of the remainder from India. More than 90% of antibiotics come from China. There is minimal FDA evaluation of this stuff;; FDA reviews are usually limited to paper audits and onsite inspections are not common. Some on-site inspections of Indian companies revealed unsanitary production facilities, falsification of QA data, adulteration with “fillers”, etc. It’s a real crap shoot with esp. Generics and I surprised the results aren’t worse.
nba side job?
Most LEO are carrying at least one Narcan injection.
I’ve heard stories of “Nita” users going through 5 or 6 Narcan injections.
If a LEO only has 1 Narcan when finding an overdose of an unknown narcotic, do the math…
The user is in the shallow end of the gene pool with no life guard on duty.
People are also being popped with Narcan when they suffered non-drug medical episodes. A well respected person I know blacked out due to an undiagnosed medical problem when driving through town and crashed his vehicle. He was popped with Narcan even though he’s never been a drug user. Now you’ll have people being brought into the ER that have Narcan in their system when they may actually need an opioid for the pain.
The alternative would be risking letting someone die by not administering Narcan. Narcan is only effective for 30-90 minutes, so the risk of not using it is far worse than the effects of using it since there are no known undesirable medical side effects.
Emergent BioSolutions, there maker of Narcan®, is going to make a fortune if it takes 5-6 injections to reverse a Nitazene overdose in a single drug user. Especially selling it over the counter to the young people most likely to overdose on opioids.
Emergent BioSolutions Underscores Continued Support of Increasing Naloxone Awareness Through Public Education Campaign on International Overdose Awareness Day
how about the old manta: you get what you pay vor
Some kids like to play around on the railroad tracks. Play chicken with the choo choo train. some lost the game. Did that lead to guards posted every hundred yards along every track? Nope.
Parents TEACH your children. Know where they are and who they are with and what they’re doing. “BBBbbbut that’s overbearing and restrictive”. Didn;’t you teach them about the hot stove, and the slipperyness ice brings? Maybe about not running red lights whilst out riding your bicycle? And not to eat mouse poison, or mouse turds?
Too many parents abandon the education and instruction o their kids to the gummit skewlz, and their peers in those schools. We see the rotten results o that, and China are driving a mile long train right into that gaping hole.
The CCP invokes and recalls the Opium Wars of the 1800s, when the British and their gunboats forced opium upon the Chinese masses to gain profits and control over a mass of addicts, which supported the Brits. This is pay back. Which is why the US must crush all drug and drug-precursor trade into the US from “Chy -nah.” Our adversary sees nothing wrong in a little payback to the West.
Meh. Pay back the damn British, not the US.
CCP is looking for payback of its own.
There’s a relatively simple solution to several drug and drug-related problems that generally receives bad reviews when I mention it.
The government can go into the drug production business.
This would cripple the cartels, prevent China from slipping ever more deadly drugs into the (no longer extant) illicit supply line, money spent of enforcement (at all levels, from the DEA and the border to the courts and prisons) can be used to provide rehab for anyone who wants it. The drugs themselves will be provided for free by authorized distribution points, reducing drug-related crime. People just “dabbling” and “trying to get a buzz” can safely do those things without fear of having their lives and careers upset by a drug possession conviction. All users can be sure of the purity and (relative) safety of the government manufactured/distributed substances. Obviously, there will still be problems associated with drug use, but we’re having many (if not all) of those problems already, while many other problems could be moderated or eliminated. (This includes the potential to eliminate much of the surveillance infrastructure that’s grown up around the war on drugs and the freeing of police resources to focus on real criminal activity – nearly all of the crime associated with trafficking having been eliminated.)
This is coming from someone doesn’t smoke, drink, or do any form of recreational drug. Never have so much as tried any of those things. So I’m not presenting this out of any self-interest. I think the idea should be critically examined and a risk-benefit analysis conducted.
In general, suggesting that the government take over ANY business to make it better should be a non-starter. These are people who took over a profitable whorehouse and a profitable child porn website and bankrupted both.
Moralizing aside, perhaps it’s time for a stronger version of Narcan.
I don’t think its like that. New drug can’t be expected to interact the same.
Frankly, I don’t like the idea that if I’m suffering from something not at all drug related, some yutz may Narcan me “just to be safe,” and if I don’t get better, may now Narcan me five or more times more, before they’ve actually determined what I’m really suffering from.
And that’s in an ER. Telling a street cop to make these kinds of decisions is just insane.
EMS in SF drives around all day reviving homeless junkies with narcan. That’s basically all they do anymore.
If there was no narcan, much of the demand would go away.
Well… one way or the other, to be sure.
When will the US Government recognize that China has declared war on the USA! They dont need to invade with soldiers, they are accomplishing more with drugs. They are slowly killing off our military age and future soldiers. They are killing off potential employees, scientists, doctors etc. And we don’t see it. We are looking at business with China and making a profit while China looks to long term success as the world’s number one power. It’s happening slowly and surely. Wake up, Donald J. Trump. The clock is ticking!
A local harm prevention agency in my town came by with a box of narcan a couple of years ago. They want business owners to keep it on hand in the event of an OD. It’s still sitting in the box. Neither I nor my employees have any interest in administering a drug to anyone. One employee has a brother who has been an addict for years. I offered the box to him and even he didn’t want it.