Drugs education charity the DSM Foundation has welcomed the Government’s announcement of steps to combat the threat posed by synthetic drugs such as nitazenes (strong laboratory-manufactured opioids) and xylazine (a veterinary sedative).
DSM Foundation Director and Founder mum Fiona Spargo-Mabbs OBE said: “”As a charity founded in response to the loss of a young life to drugs, with the story of my 16 year old son Dan who was taken far too soon at its heart, any news of more drug-related deaths hits us hard. The rise of strong synthetics that have been causing increasing numbers of fatalities in the UK have been a great source of concern for us, as for so many others, and we know that each individual will have left a hole in the lives of the many people that knew and loved them. We’ve been working incredibly hard for well over a decade now to do all we can to reduce drug-related harm through evidence-based drug education. Any difference that can be made through wider work being done by the many other agencies to identify risk and prevent harm, and ultimately save lives, is welcomed by us as a charity.”
In the DSM Foundation’s work with young people and the adults in their lives, nitazenes and xylazine don’t feature overtly, but are sometimes mentioned in the context of illegal drugs being unregulated and therefore unknown quantities in terms of their ingredients and strength, and hence making the effects and risks even more unpredictable. This principle can also apply to products that young people may regard as legal, such as vapes, many of which are manufactured and handled outside the UK regulations, an issue that seems particularly problematic for under 18s who shouldn’t be able to access them in the first place. The charity published a blog on nitazenes last year which can be read at https://www.dsmfoundation.org.uk/blog-nitazenes/
The government announcement can be seen at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/britain-working-at-pace-to-curb-rising-synthetic-drugs-threat