Centro de Documentação da PJ
Analítico de Periódico
CD 357
N-desethyl isotonitazene in fake oxycodone tablets seized in Portugal [Recurso eletrónico] : the first notification in Europe / Carla Filipa Ferreira ..[et al.]
Forensic Chemistry, Vol. 46 (December 2025), [12] p.
A lista completa de autores é: Carla Filipa Ferreira, Alexandra M. M. Antunes, Helena Gaspar e Maria Jo˜ao Caldeira. Ficheiro de 6,13 MB em formato PDF.
DROGA SINTÉTICA, ANÁLISE DE DROGA, ANÁLISE LABORATORIAL, QUÍMICA ANALÍTICA, LPC, ESTUDO DE CASOS, PORTUGAL
Nitazenes class emerged in the mid-1950s as an attempt to develop safer and more effective opioid analgesics for medical applications. This led to the discovery of a series of 2-benzylbenzimidazole derivatives, which exhibited analgesic potency several orders of magnitude higher than that of morphine. However, these derivatives were never approved for medical use due to their risk of dependence and overdose. Thus, nitazenes appear to be even more potent than fentanyl, raising concerns about their high overdose potential increasing number of related fatalities. The principal aim of this study was to report the first identification of a nitazene in Portugal, which was identified in fake oxycodone tablets seized by Portuguese Criminal Police and analysed by Portuguese Forensic Science Laboratory in collaboration with the University of Lisbon. To address the challenges in identifying new emerging drugs, such as the lack of standards and the possibility of structural isomers, the N-desethyl isotonitazene was successfully identified in the tablets using a combination of complementary techniques, including GC–MS, LC-HRMS/MS, NMR and FTIR. Notably, this represented the first recorded occurrence of this nitazene in Europe. Additionally, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of fake oxycodone tablet containing N-desethyl isotonitazene. This work also contributed to formally notifying the EU Early Warning System on New Psychoactive Substances in December of 2023.
