A mother has opened up about the 'unimaginable' loss of her son who died from a drug overdose last September.
Freddy Ireland-Rose's mum said the 30-year-old was found unresponsive at home with a vape pen, she insists, was contaminated with an opioid known as nitazenes.
Paramedics were able to resuscitate Freddy, but he did not regain consciousness and passed away a few days later in hospital.
An inquest in North London heard that Freddy was using a cannabis vape to withdraw from opiates by buying liquid refills online, as reported by the Daily Mail.
Advert
The mum - who told BBC Newsnight that he was regularly receiving parcels from Amsterdam - said he had been using the same vape pen for two or three weeks.
The results of the inquest suggested it was possible that the vape was contaminated with nitazene.
What is nitazene?
The synthetic opioid is said to be 20 times stronger than fentanyl and has been monitored by the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities.
Nitazenes and illicitly manufactured fentanyls 'are typically many times stronger than heroin and carry a higher risk of overdose'.
"As of 19 September 2024, OHID and the NCA confirmed through laboratory testing that there were 179 deaths involving one or more nitazenes occurring between 1 June 2023 and 31 May 2024," the health department said last year.
Inner North London assistant coroner Sarah Bourke raised concerns in a Prevention of Future Deaths Report that cannabis vapes are being contaminated by nitazenes.
She said in the report in to Ireland-Rose's death that N-pyrrolidino isotonitazene - 'a potent synthetic opioid... thought to be similar or greater in potency to isotonitazene, which is estimated to be approximately 20 times more potent than fentanyl' - was found at a concentration of 0.37 ng/ml in his blood.
She added: "The toxicologist confirmed that nitazenes can be ingested from a vape and that they have been detected in refillable vapes and vapes bought illicitly."
Meanwhile, Ireland-Rose's mum said: "I don't think for one minute, and neither do any of his friends, that he took this intentionally.
"So, we can only assume it was in another illicit drug that he was taking, another opioid, or that it was the vape. And my question at the inquest was, is it possible that this contaminated the vapes and they came back with the answer, yes it was possible."
"I know that friends of his, with whom I'm in contact, they hadn't heard of nitazenes, which is very worrying," she added.
"The pharmacist at the London hospital, when I went back and talked with him, he'd never heard of them."
It comes after Steve Rolles, a senior policy analyst at the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, told MailOnline: "The number of deaths is rising at an alarming rate. It's the tip of the iceberg.
"What has happened in the US should be a warning to policymakers in the UK. We could be heading to a US-style overdose crisis. We are talking thousands or tens of thousands dying.
"All the indications are that is what is happening. I'm very wary of scaremongering about drugs but I'm deeply worried about the potential carnage opioids could do in the UK."
If you want friendly, confidential advice about drugs, you can talk to FRANK. You can call 0300 123 6600, text 82111 or contact through their website 24/7, or livechat from 2pm-6pm any day of the week
Anish Vij