NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — A Vanderbilt doctor is raising the alarm about a powerful class of synthetic opioids known as nitazenes, drugs that were shelved decades ago but are now reappearing in the street drug supply.
Dr. Shravani Durbhakula, an anesthesiologist and associate professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, co-authored a recent study with the University of Pittsburgh on nitazenes. She says the drugs are “honestly, really scary,” describing them as anywhere from “tens, to hundreds, to even thousands of times more powerful than morphine, and up to 20 times more powerful than fentanyl.”
Nitazenes were first developed in the 1950s by a pharmaceutical company exploring new pain treatments. But they were never approved for medical use because they proved too toxic…