Pity that they’re likely wasting their time.
Nitazenes, also known by the chemical name benzimidazole-opioids, are a group of lab-created synthetic opioids, originally developed in the 1950s, that were never approved for medical use.
With a potency of up to 500 times that of pure morphine, nitazenes have been appearing in overdose statistics, with 18,449 emergency medical service encounters tied to nitazenes in just over two years.
“Nitazenes could become the next fentanyl crisis if not stopped.”
The most common nitazenes are five to nine times stronger than fentanyl, the last “Frankenstein drug” to overwhelm American drug enforcers, inspiring Senators Eric Schmitt, Pete Ricketts and Dave McCormick to launch three new bills in a coordinated effort to get out in front of the increase in nitazene use.
One bill, the Detection Equipment and Technology Evaluation to Counter the Threat of Nitazenes Act of 2025, would order the Department of Homeland Security to work with the DEA to develop means of detecting small traces of nitazenes.
Along with Senator Ruben Gallego, they have also introduced the Nitazene Control Act to permanently list nitazenes as illegal Schedule I drugs similar to heroin and LSD.
The third bill, the Nitazene Sanctions Act, would levy sanctions on Chinese persons and entities—China being the primary source of nitazenes—to stop the flood of the synthetic opioids and their precursor chemicals pouring into the US.
Senator Ricketts said, “Nitazenes could become the next fentanyl crisis if not stopped. It’s already killed thousands of Europeans, and it’s quickly making its way to our shores.”
Senator Schmitt directly blasted bad actors in China—where he said nitazenes “overwhelmingly originate”—as helping “to poison and kill Americans.”
“The fact that nitazenes are oftentimes more deadly than fentanyl, which killed nearly 4,000 Pennsylvanians last year alone, should be a wake-up call to us all,” said Senator McCormick. “We must target nitazenes before they become the next drug epidemic.”
The senators’ hearts are obviously in the right place, but history shows us an unfortunate and disturbing truth that these measures, no matter how well-intentioned—even if they are unanimously passed—likely won’t make much difference to the scene of American drug abuse.
We are involved in a deadly serious arms race for the very soul of our planet. New drugs come along, enjoy a life span of a few years or so, before governments can react and take measures against them, only to find that other drugs quickly come along to take their place.
By way of example, drug abusers were using heroin, which comes from morphine, which comes from opium, which comes from opium poppies, which come primarily from Afghanistan.
But the Taliban drastically decreased the farming of opium poppies (imagine saying something good about the Taliban!), making heroin difficult to get and, therefore, more expensive and troublesome. After all, when you’re getting your drugs from plants, you have to worry about crop yields, weather, squabbles with warlords, supply routes and all that.
But if your drugs are made in a lab using chemicals, no problem! It’s a lot less trouble and a lot cheaper.
So, when drug dealers had to keep their outrageous millions flowing in, they turned to lab-created fentanyl to mix with the heroin and stretch out supplies.
“We’ve had heroin supplies that have been adulterated by these drugs and that’s because they’re so strong and the heroin is running out,” said Caroline Copeland of the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths at King’s College London.
The facts back her up—between 2021 and 2022, rates of heroin overdoses decreased, while overdoses of fentanyl increased. See how that works?
Fentanyl, both on its own and mixed into counterfeit opioid pills, has a very lethal history.
In 2023, around 76,282 Americans died from synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl. The climbing death rate got the government’s notice and enforcement efforts stepped up against the drug. As Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs notes, Chinese chemists then began looking for new drugs—unanticipated by authorities—and found nitazenes.
Enforcement will never end the drug abuse epidemic.
There are many different members of the nitazene family—protonitazene, clonitazene, isotonitazene, metonitazene and etonitazene—all with roughly the same effects, in varying potencies, and all giving a similar high to heroin, but much easier and cheaper to manufacture and obtain.
And much deadlier.
A study published by the American Medical Association stated, “The increased regulation of fentanyl and fentanyl analogues throughout the last decade may have led to a change in the chemical precursors required for clandestine laboratory production that were not yet regulated.
“This change in chemical precursors may have led to these newer and more potent opioids.”
“Their greater potency, therefore, implies that it may be easier to overdose on nitazenes compared to other opioids, especially in consideration of the lack of control and precision when they are added in illicitly obtained drugs,” Missouri Medicine stated.
In other words, junkies, you might think you’re buying your old favorites, like oxycodone or hydrocodone, but there’s a very good chance they’re phony. Instead, you’re about to get dosed up on fentanyl or nitazenes, offering what might be an unexpected and unwelcome one-way ticket to the grave.
In Vancouver Island, British Columbia, between December 2024 and May of this year, 16 percent of opioid pills like oxycodone were found to contain nitazenes.
So if the senators’ bills pass, and enforcement against nitazenes ramps up, just how long is it likely to take for Chinese outlaw chemists to whip up a new, still-legal recipe, and come up with a different “Frankenstein drug” to take the place of nitazenes?
Odds are, they’re already working on it.
Which tells you one thing: Enforcement will never end the drug abuse epidemic.
You want to stop addiction in America? You don’t do it by cutting off supply.
You do it by ending demand.
If no one wants the poison, and no one is willing to cough up hard, cold cash to buy their supply of toxic filth, drug dealers will dry up and blow away like dead leaves in autumn, and the problem will be solved, for good.
And the key to that is simple—education.
Maybe we’ve lost a portion of a generation that fell into the dark, bottomless pit of opioid addiction, but there’s another generation on the way, and it’s critical that we reach out to them with the facts about synthetic opioids.
In other words, we don’t need more cops—we need more dedicated, lifesaving educators.
Former Drug Enforcement Administration official Derek Maltz said kids are “all on social media, so why are we not training them and educating them in school and on social media? That has to change.
“We have to educate the kids in this country.”
In 2023, Maltz told the House of Representatives: “To be clear, the drug crisis can’t be solved with law enforcement alone.… The US needs more focus and resources on drug education, treatment and rehabilitation in addition to law enforcement.
“The American public didn’t receive adequate education about the consequences of using and abusing these powerful and addictive opioids.”
And we’re paying the price for that lack of learning—in blood. The lesson is very clear: To ensure that synthetic opioid addiction dries up, we need to wise up.
The Truth About Drugs, a global education outreach program sponsored by the Church of Scientology, is working in the right direction. The Foundation for a Drug-Free World has distributed over 170 million copies of its 15 educational booklets, each one telling the bitter truth about drugs.
All told, the program has reached 1 billion souls with the straight facts, and over 1,000 law enforcement and government groups have praised the program and use it regularly, as do thousands of schools.
Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard prophetically said: “The planet has hit a barrier that prevents any widespread social progress: drugs and other toxic substances.
“These can put people into a condition that not only prohibits and destroys physical health, but which can prevent any stable advancement in mental or spiritual well-being.”
Americans are dying from the lack of a simple truth: synthetic opioids are a false road to happiness. They’re not a cure for anything—not for physical pain and not for the pain of the soul. They are only a path to misery and the cemetery.
New laws are not the answer. The truth is.
