Revealed: New super-strength opioids have already claimed lives behind bars, as prisons ‘not ready’ for influx

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Lethal synthetic opioids have been detected in the UK in heroin, diazepam, cannabis and illicit vapes “Prisons are so overburdened, so close to the edge with understaffing and huge pressures on the health services provided within prisons already, that there’s almost nil chance they’ll be able to prepare for – let alone cope with – a sudden influx of nitazenes and rising deaths,” said Martin Powell, of the Transform Drugs Foundation. Warning the government that “something potentially very dangerous is happening, the speed of reaction is our responsibility now”, Mike Trace – chief executive of the Forward Trust, which provides drug and alcohol services in 25 prisons – said: “Past experience would suggest we’ve moved too slow.” “Nitazenes are arriving when the drug market is probably at its highest in prisons,” said Mr Trace, whose organisation issued a national alert to its staff about the substances last month. So when we know of something that could lead to a lot of deaths, we’ve got to get ahead of the normal process of learning.” ‘It’s a bit like Covid preparedness – we’re at that point, it’s unavoidable,’ warns one charity boss of the synthetic opioid challenge The prison service is part of a new cross-government taskforce on synthetic opioids which meets monthly, and the Ministry of Justice aims to roll out scanners capable of detecting even small traces of drugs in all public prisons by April. All police officers already carry naloxone to administer to overdose victims in the community Describing the threat of nitazenes as “yet again another example of why there’s got to be sustained investment in prisons”, Tory justice committee chair Sir Bob Neill warned that already “patchy” prison health provision is being exacerbated by overcrowding and “often very poor” conditions, adding: “Anything like this arising will make it even worse.” If the drugs do begin infiltrating prisons en masse, a vital tool will be the lifesaving overdose-reversal drug naloxone.