TALENTED pianist Will Melbourne should have had a bright future ahead of him.
A top-grade mathematician and computer coder, the 19-year-old wanted to study at prestigious Cambridge University
SuppliedWill Melbourne thought he was taking a pill to calm his anxiety[/caption]
SuppliedWill on holiday with his family, who have been left heartbroken[/caption]
Mum Sally with a young WillSupplied
Friends called him a “genius” but, despite his fierce intelligence, Will suffered with fear, doubt and uncertainty amid a diagnosis for autism and ADHD.
Trapped in a cycle of severe anxiety and inability to sleep, he started ‘self-medicating’ with sedative-type drugs he bought off the dark web.
In December 2020, while struggling through lockdown, Will ordered what he thought was a packet of oxycodene, a pain relief and anti-anxiety drug which helped spark America’s opioid crisis.
His life ended within seconds of taking them at his flat in Cheshire.
Will had mistakenly taken a new breed of drug 50 times more powerful than deadly fentanyl – and they are sweeping across Britain.
Dubbed ‘Frankenstein drugs’, man-made nitazenes have already been linked to 230 UK deaths between June 2023 and June this year.
They are made in sinister Chinese labs where gangsters are cashing in following a crackdown on fentanyl in the US.
Now The Sun can reveal that a terrifying new super-strength version of nitazenes has been found in Britain for the first time.
The discovery of the new version in Norwich in August is thought to be the first time the deadly substance has been found anywhere in the world.
The news has horrified Will’s parents, John and Sally, who are begging Britain’s young not to buy illegal medicine online.
Dad John, 55, a musician, said: “Taking these drugs is like playing Russian roulette with your life.
“My advice to parents or anyone reading this is to make your kids as aware as humanly possible that nitazenes exist.
“They might only get one chance because this is absolutely lethal stuff.
“Not enough people know about nitazenes.. It feels like Britain is sleepwalking into the same crisis as America when it comes to opioids.”
SuppliedWill was gifted at maths and played the piano[/caption]
SuppliedHe had dreams of studying at Cambridge University[/caption]
John and wife Sally, 57, a piano teacher, insist their son was not taking oxycodene to “get high” but to get some relief from the anxiety many neurodiverse people suffer.
According to the Autism Research Centre, at the University of Cambridge, autistic people across the UK are far more likely to use recreational drugs to self-medicate due to an absence of proper support in the NHS.
John said: “From all the evidence we can glean, Will collapsed and died straight away. He was wearing a covid mask and didn’t even have time to remove it – that’s how instantaneous it was.
“That shows you how dangerous these drugs are.”
This drug is absolutely lethal
Will Melbourne’s dad John
Will, whose inquest was delayed by three years, is believed to be one of the first victims of nitazenes on UK soil.
His death was not thought to be suspicious and police initially assumed the drugs he had taken were pure oxycodene so they weren’t tested.
John said: ” I had no idea that drugs found at scenes of death are not routinely tested.
“The police assumed these were pain killers and it wasn’t until we alerted the coroner’s court of our suspicions a year after Will died that they were tested and found to be nitazenes.
“It makes you wonder just how many other young victims there have been.”
He is not the only young Brit to die from the drug.
Budding opera singer Alex Harpum, 23, died after taking a tablet with nitazene in July last year.
Phone records suggested he had tried to buy pills usually sold as Xanax, which are only available with prescription in the UK.
His mum Ann Jacques believes Alex may have taken the tablets after struggling with sleep while taking medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Ann, of North Wales, told BBC Breakfast: “I feel like half of me has gone that will never come back. I miss him all day, every day.
Met PolicePolice busted a nitazene drug factory in November last year[/caption]
Nitazenes are at least 50 times more powerful than fentanyl
“He always had trouble sleeping and this had got worse with his ADHD medication and my hunch is he probably bought them (the tablets) to calm himself down and get some sleep.”
The National Crime Agency – Britain’s version of the FBI – warned in its annual strategic report that there has “never been a more dangerous time to take drugs”
Nitazenes have already been found in the country’s heroin supply – leading to a cluster of at least 30 deaths in Birmingham in summer 2023. One weekend in July saw three people lose their lives.
In November last year, cops seized their biggest haul of nitazenes in a drugs factory in north London where they found 150,000 tablets.
Now traces of the powerful substance are being found in fake tranquilliser-type drugs sold online.
The emergence of an even stronger version of nitazene – whose full compound name is N-pyrrolidino isotonitazene – has left experts even more worried.
One told The Sun it is likely to have claimed lives in the UK.
Deadly pills
Retired Birmingham GP Judith Yates, who collates drug statistics, said: “It’s more dangerous than any nitazene we’ve seen before.
“I believe it may have already caused deaths as it has already rendered two people unconscious upon using it.”
The super-strength compound was first found in Norwich on August 7 this year before being discovered in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, Edinburgh, Dagenham and Bermondsey in London and Malvern in Worcestershire.
A report by drug testing agency Wedinos reveals users in Bermondsey and Edinburgh lost consciousness after taking the pills.
What are nitazenes?
IT’S a synthetic opioid that is up to 500 time more powerful than heroin and “a speck of dust” sized amount can kill.
Nitazenes are a worrying new compound that is being added to heroin and other drugs, including counterfeit medication sold online.
The synthetic opioid can produce sedation and euphoria but also fatal respiratory depression.
Nitazenes have claimed more than 100 lives since last summer in the UK alone, according to the National Crime Agency.
There are many types of nitazenes – currently 14 have become Class A drugs on Wednesday under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
According to medical journal The Lancet, etonitazene has a potency of 500 compared to heroin, which was rated at one and fentanyl, listed as 50.
The drug was originally manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry in the 1950s and 1960s as a pain-relief medication and anaesthesia.
However, they discovered to be so potent that they were never approved or marketed as a medicine.
Since 2019, nitazenes have re-emerged within illegal drug supplies in the UK as well as the US and other European countries.
Dr Yates said: “This chemical has been found to be the most potent nitazene yet.
“It latches on more strongly to receptors in the brain which can stop you from breathing.
“I’m guessing that it’s already caused deaths because two people have lost consciousness using it.
“It was linked to its first non fatal overdose in Australia in September, a month after it was found in the UK so it’s likely that the discovery in Norwich was the first time it emerged in the world.”
AlamyNitazines have also been found in street heroin, leading to deaths in Birmingham[/caption]
Dr Yates said nitazenes have ironically emerged in Britain in the move to make America safer, where half a million people have died from opioid addiction.
She said: “These drugs are mainly made in Chinese labs.
“In 2019, Donald Trump came to an agreement with leaders in China to crack down on the production of fentanyl, which has caused massive issues in America.
“This saw Chinese chemists start making nitazenes. They must be extremely skilful because since then they have been manufacturing different molecules, almost to test out if they can.
“It’s not easy to stop them coming into Britain. I met Border Force officers in Coventry, the biggest centre for Parcel Force and they told me how difficult it was to screen for this drug.
“It’s so powerful you need just a tiny trace of it in a pill to have an effect.”
Contamination risk
Wedinos statistics show that in the year to September 2024, there were 130 cases of people buying off-label medicines such as diazepam, temazepam and zolipdem contaminated with nitazenes.
Harry Sumnall, a professor of substance use at Liverpool John Moore University, said it was likely illegally-bought pills were being accidentally contaminated with nitazenes in labs.
Professor Sumnall said: “There are lots of different types of nitazene that vary in potency but, as a group of drugs, they are much more potent and harmful than heroin.
“They are 50 times more potent than fentynal.
“When organised crime gangs pack drugs there is a big risk of contamination. If they are preparing heroin with nitazene in the same environment as anti-anxiety drugs the risk is quite high.
“We don’t have a thorough understanding of the nitazene market yet. They first emerged in th heroin supply and we don’t know if it was a deliberate move by organised crime groups testing the market.”
Opioids are surging in popularity among drug dealers because heroin supplies from Afghanistan are expected to dry up after the Taliban put a ban on the growing of opium poppies.
The Home Office banned 14 types of nitazenes in March this year, making them Class A drugs.
APDrug dealers are experimenting with nitazenes as heroin from Afghanistan dries up[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
