OBN Warning on Nitazenes Reveals That Cartels Continue to Develop New Formulas for the Illicit Market
Clinical Review by Matt Hawk, B.Sc., ADC (IC&RC), CAC II (ADACBGA)
The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics (OBN) has warned Oklahomans that the number of life-threatening drugs on the illicit market continues to expand. For most of a decade, fentanyl was the most devastating drug taking American lives. Now it is joined by a series of new drugs called nitazenes.
Nitazenes are painkillers similar to heroin and fentanyl. At this point, there are more than 20 types of nitazenes found on the illicit market. These similar drugs are referred to as analogues because they are chemically similar to each other. To save more lives statewide, OBN spokesman Mark Woodward issued a warning in August of 2025.
Woodward described nitazenes as street drugs that are “made typically in China on the black market and… shipped into the United States by criminal organizations through Canada and Mexico and put on the streets in pill form.” Counterfeit pills that contain nitazenes may look like prescription medications such as Xanax, hydrocodone, or oxycodone. The drugs can also be sold as yellow, brown, and white powders.
Types of Nitazenes Found on the Illicit Market
While 20 drugs in this class have been found on the illicit market, some of the most common forms include:
- Metonitazene
- Protonitazene
- Isotonitazene
- Etonitazene
- N-piperidinyl etonitazene
What makes nitazenes incredibly dangerous is their potency. The strength of the drugs in this group varies, but the most potent one, etonitazene, is 40 times more potent than fentanyl. The opioid antidote naloxone will work to reverse nitazene overdoses; however, repeated doses may have to be given until the person responds.
“Being 40 times stronger than fentanyl in some cases, you might need 40 times more Narcan, and most people are just not going to have that available.”
Woodward commented, “Being 40 times stronger than fentanyl in some cases, you might need 40 times more Narcan, and most people are just not going to have that available.”
He added, “Here in Oklahoma, we’ve already outlawed six different types of nitazenes, but when we do, we always get either a lab report or an autopsy report that shows that there’s a new variation or multiple new variations.” Chemists operating in illicit labs only need to move around a few molecules to create a new nitazene that could be even more powerful than existing forms.
Nitazenes Are Hard to Identify in Street Drugs
Nitazenes have been found mixed with fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and novel benzodiazepines (illicit drugs similar to Xanax and Valium), as well as being formed into pills. No one consuming a powder drug or a pill bought from a drug dealer has any idea what they are actually taking.
Drug test kits may not even detect these substances. Many harm reduction groups distribute fentanyl test kits to drug users, but these test kits will not detect nitazenes because the two groups are chemically different.
Even the dealers themselves may not know what they are selling. Woodward noted, “A lot of times, the dealers do not know. They think they’re moving Xanax or oxycodone. Those pills will look just like it.”
Nitazene Supplies First Arrived in the Midwest and Then Spread
These drugs began to be detected in the U.S. in 2003, but became a significant threat in 2019. That year, there were 43 samples submitted to forensic labs. By 2024, the number had risen to 1,905. More than half of these samples came from the Midwest. Later samples came from the South and Northeast. Few samples have been received from the West.
As the supply increased and the drug made its way to more U.S. states, nitazene-involved overdose deaths in the U.S. increased sharply from 27 in 2020 to 320 in 2023.
Anyone consuming illicit drugs or pills that were not obtained from a pharmacy may be at serious risk of nitazene overdose. A person who cannot break free from opioid addiction can get help at a drug rehabilitation center. The Narconon Arrowhead rehab center in Canadian, Oklahoma, has been offering a long-term residential rehab program since 2001 to provide a path out of addiction for Oklahomans and thousands of other Americans.
For more information on the Narconon Drug and Alcohol Rehab program available in Oklahoma, contact Narconon Arrowhead.
Sources:
- “OBN warns of deadly drug on the rise.” KXII, 2025. KXII
- “Nitazenes: An Old Drug Class Causing New Problems.” National Library of Medicine, 2025. NLM
- “Emerging Drug Trends.” National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2024. NIDA
- “Deadly drug becoming a bigger problem in Oklahoma.” KFOR, 2025. KFOR
- “State and Territory Report on Enduring and Emerging Threats.” Drug Enforcement Administration, 2024. DEA
- “New class of opioids that may be more potent than fentanyl emerges globally.” The Guardian, 2024. The Guardian
- “Temporal and geographical patterns of nitazene detections in drug samples and biospecimens in the United States, 2019–2024.” Wiley Online Library, 2026. Wiley
