![\"Drug](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/jp_1RuIKb7V2QGx_GWpqsJWTEdQ=\/1500x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)\/Lucci-Reyes-McCallister-Hunter-Clement-081125-62f9b14d5f5d449899a5cda4b82084c1.jpg\")
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A synthetic opioid that\u2019s 43 times stronger than fentanyl and 250 times stronger than heroin has caused hundreds of deaths in the U.K., and has now spread to the U.S.<\/p>\n
Nitazenes are behind the deaths of two young men in Texas, who took pills that were laced with the potent drug<\/p>\n
Their mothers are speaking out to raise awareness and warn others about the deadly substance<\/p>\n
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Experts are warning about a dangerous drug hitting the streets that\u2019s up to 43 times stronger than fentanyl and 250 times stronger than heroin \u2014 that\u2019s already killed two young men in Texas.
\nNitazenes are synthetic opioids that are produced in China and, like fentanyl, can be found mixed in drugs like heroin and pills. The Wall Street Journal reports the drug is so potent, even trace amounts can be fatal \u2014\u00a0and it\u2019s already caused at least 400 deaths in the U.K.
\nBut now the drug is stateside: The families of two young Texas men who died from taking pills laced with the drugs are speaking out.
\nIn January, Lucci Reyes-McCallister, 22, died near Houston after taking a pill that he thought was Xanax, his mother, Grey McCallister, told the New York Post, explaining that her son’s pill was laced with a form of nitazene.
\nThree months later, in April, a friend of Lucci\u2019s, 21-year-old Hunter Clement, died after taking what he believed to be a Percocet. His mother, Ruthi Clement, told the Post she found her son face-down in his bed, his skin purple. Two doses of Narcan didn\u2019t work to revive her son.<\/p>\n
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Narcan \u2014 the branded name for naloxone \u2014 is an emergency medication intended to reverse the effects of a narcotic overdose. But nitazenes are so potent that Narcan isn\u2019t as effective as it is against a heroin overdose, for example.
\nThe reason for the influx of fentanyl, and now nitazenes, is that it\u2019s easier to smuggle in smaller, but more potent drugs, U.K. National Crime Agency Deputy Director Charles Yates told the WSJ. \u201cThey buy potent nitazenes cheaply and mix them with bulking agents such as caffeine and paracetamol to strengthen the product being sold and make significant profits,\u201d Yates told the outlet.
\nAlthough it’s commonly mixed into pills and powders, a man in Sydney was arrested on Aug. 5 for selling vapes that were “supercharged” with the drug, The Guardian reports. There are 17 different strains circulating in the U.S., the Drug Enforcement Agency reports in the 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment. The drug is so new that it\u2019s not part of routine testing, the WSJ says, but research from 2022 found 93 deaths that were attributable to strains of nitazenes.
\nN-pyrrolidino etonitazenes are the most potent, up to 43 times stronger than fentanyl, the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission says. N-pyrrolidino protonitazenes \u2014 the type that killed Lucci \u2014 is 25 times the strength of fentanyl.
\nLucci\u2019s death, his mother told the Post, \u201cwas the first time I\u2019d ever heard of [nitazene].\u201d
\nHunter\u2019s mother shared that she\u2019s speaking out because, \u201cSometimes I get mad because I couldn\u2019t save my own son. I do want to save other people, even if it\u2019s just one person in honor of him.\u201d
\nNever miss a story \u2014 sign up for\u00a0PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter\u00a0to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A synthetic opioid that\u2019s 43 times stronger than fentanyl and 250 times stronger than heroin has caused hundreds of deaths in the U.K., and has now spread to the … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34438,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34436\/revisions\/34438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}