Overview

• A 28-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman died after consuming green pills marked ‘80’ over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend, and one additional clubber was hospitalised.
• Field and laboratory testing indicate the pills contain nitazenes—a synthetic opioid 50 to 500 times more potent than heroin—often mis-sold as oxycodone or ecstasy.
• Nightclubs including Ministry of Sound, Fabric, The Cause and XOYO have posted urgent alerts advising patrons to avoid unidentified pills, seek immediate medical help and carry naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses.
• Bromley Council extended its public health alert to schools, warning that even trace doses of the pills can prove fatal and stressing that conventional harm reduction measures may not apply.
• Experts recorded 179 nitazene-related deaths in England in the year to June 2024 and urged the government to reinstate front-of-house drug checking before the summer festival season to prevent an overdose crisis.