Synthetic opioids believed to be behind a spike in drug deaths have been detected in Scottish prisons, a leading academic has said.

A crackdown by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the main grower of opium, has created a gap in the market which is filled by laboratory created substances such as fentanyl.

Synthetic opiods can be up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, vastly increasing the risk of an overdose.

They are also often cut in to other drugs such as cocaine so users may be unaware of what they are taking.

Harry Sumnall, a professor in substance use at Liverpool John Moores University said that agencies have detected synthetic opioids in Scotland, including in Scottish prisons.

“They are already on the market,” he said. “There’s a real concern that they could become much more prominent and this could have a devastating effect.”

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Meg Jones, from drugs charity Cranstoun, said there have been “spikes” in the number of people dying from an overdose across the country because of synthetic opioids.

She called the problem “widespread” and told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The really important thing to say on this is it’s not a localised issue that is happening in one particular area. We are seeing spikes in a number of areas across the country.

"We need to see now Government action on how to deal with this.

“We already have a public health crisis in the UK, we already have the worst drug-related deaths in Europe, and what we need to see now is particularly movement on things like overdose prevention centres – they provide a safe space for people who use their drugs to be supported in the event that they do have an overdose.”

In November 2022, a study by the University of Glasgow found there had been 121 deaths in Scottish prisons since the start of 2020, with a rise in drug deaths.

The Herald:

Over the period studied there were 25 deaths involving drugs.

Last month information published by the Scottish Prisons Service revealed nine prisoners had died in the previous nine weeks.

Of the deaths, three involved prisoners at HMP Barlinnie, two involved prisoners at both HMP Shotts and HMP Perth, one involved a prisoner at HMP Edinburgh and one involved a prisoner at HMP Low Moss.

Two of the prisoners died while on remand, while one prisoner died at HMP Edinburgh less than eight weeks after being convicted at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

In accordance with the Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths (Scotland) Act, a Fatal Accident Inquiry will take place into all of the deaths, but the process can take up to two years to complete.

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Almost all of the heroin consumed in Europe comes from Afghanistan, and the Taliban has been cracking down on poppy farmers since it seized back control of the country.

In April 2022 close to 50% of crops grown in Helmand Province were poppies, while for April 2023 that figure was less than 1%.

It takes a year to 18 months for the opium grown in Afghanistan to reach Europe as heroin, meaning the full effects may not be known until next year.

The Taliban previously banned opium in 2000, which led to a shortage of heroin on the continent.

That coincided with the first appearance of fentanyl and a spike in drug deaths, particularly in Estonia where the synthetic opiod first appeared in 2003.

In the preceding years the average purity of confiscated heroin dropped from 58% in 2000 to 21% in 2001 and to 7% in 2002.

Until 2017 Estonia had the highest overdose death rate in Europe, with fentanyl involved in 70–80% of overdose deaths between 2010 and 2017 according to the Estonian Causes of Deaths Registry.

After the institution of programmes such as Naloxone distribution, needle programmes to reduce the risk of HIV, and disruption of supply - leading to increased costs and lower purity - the mortality rate dropped from 130 deaths per million adults in 2017 to 43 deaths per million population aged 15-64 years in 2018.

Naloxone is a medication used to reverse or reduce the effect of opiods, and has also been used in the US to tackle its own fentanyl epidemic.

Drug overdose deaths more than doubled between 2015 and 2021, with over 106,000 in the latter year.

Of those 70,601 were deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone, primarily fentanyl.