- A top police chief said UK cities may soon look like San Francisco
- The Californian city is in the throes of a deepening drug crisis
- It has been fueled by a rise of synthetic opioids from China
Major UK cities may soon look like the chaotic streets of San Francisco due to the rise of high-potency synthetic opioids, one of Britain’s top police chiefs has warned.
Donna Jones, who chairs the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, said it was ‘inevitable’ that British cities would soon see a spike in deaths that has ravaged the Californian city since the Taliban banned poppy farming, used to create heroin, in April last year.
‘That will completely dry up the heroin supply down to Africa and up through Europe over the next 12 months, which means the Chinese synthetic opioid market is going to explode,’ she said.
‘It’s already happening in America, and heroin addicts in America are dying in their plenty because synthetic opioids like fentanyl are literally 50 times stronger than street heroin. And it is so tragic.’
San Francisco has been hit with a combined homelessness and drugs epidemic, worsened by pandemic-related unemployment and a housing shortage, that has ravaged the city for the past few years.
This year has been the deadliest for drug overdoses in the city. In the first nine months of 2023, 692 peopled died of overdoses, more than the entire year of 2022, according to data published by the city’s medical examiner this month.
The city is currently on track to witness over 800 fatal overdoses by the year’s end, topping the previous record in 2020, which saw 702.
August was the deadliest month on record, which saw one person die of an overdose every nine hours.
In the UK, deaths caused by drug poisoning in England and Wales are already at their highest levels since records began 30 years ago, according to the ONS.
Last year, opiates accounted for just under half of the 4,907 drug-related deaths.
Synthetic drugs, often several hundred times stronger than their ‘natural’ counterparts, have been linked to at least 54 deaths in the UK in the last six months alone, the National Crime Agency said.
A further 40 cases are still awaiting their final test results, meaning the number is likely to go up.
Law enforcement agencies believe that the synthetic opioids, called nitazenes, are being made in China, before being imported and consumed in the UK.
‘The Chinese gangs have been keeping a close eye on the supply of heroin around the world and have clearly seen an opportunity to exploit the market with a massive explosion in synthetic opioids,’ Jones said.
The first example of a nitazene was found in the back of a Wakefield taxi in 2021.
In October, police raided a ‘sophisticated factory’ in Waltham Forest, northeast London, and confiscated 150,000 nitazene tablets, the largest ever stash of synthetic opioids.
Eleven were arrested as a result.
Detective Superintendent Helen Rance, leading the investigation, said: ‘Synthetic opioids have been detected in batches of heroin found in London and across the UK.
‘They substantially raise the risk of incredibly serious harm to the user, and are believed to be linked to a number of deaths.’
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
