Upcoming webinar: Australian preparedness for nitazenes

Wednesday 27 March 2024 at 6pm AEDT. 

We will be joined by two international guest speakers, Prof Eamon Keenan and Nicki Killeen from HSE Ireland. They will discuss a cluster of overdoses that occurred in Ireland in late 2023 after an influx of nitazenes on the drug market. They will share their learnings from this period with a view to informing Australian preparedness for this emerging harm.  

Speakers

International guest speakers, from HSE Ireland:

• Prof Eamon Keenan (National Clinical Lead, Addiction Services)
• Nicki Killeen (Emerging Drug Trends Project Manager)

Panellists: A/Prof Shalini Arunogiri (Turning Point, MARC), Molly Howes (AIVL) and Dr Thanjira Jiranantakan (NSW Health). 

About nitazenes

Nitazenes are a group of highly potent synthetic opioids, up to 1000 times more potent than morphine by some measures. There have been several detections of nitazenes in Australia since the first report to the NSW Poisons Information Centre in 2021. 

Nitazenes have been found represented as other opioids such as heroin and oxycodone, and in non-opioid substances being sold as ketamine, MDMA, cocaine, alprazolam and 3C-P.

The National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs is made up of a consortium of the following four institutions