Nitazene Changes
On July 1, 2025, China’s Ministry of Public Security, National Health Commission and National Medical Products Administration jointly placed nitazene analogues under national control using a generic definition. We are tracking the impact this change has on nitazenes in the US drug supply.
Background information from UNODC.
💡 Methods Considerations. Before we begin, it's important to emphasize that we get more samples from certain states: WA, NC, MI, CO, CA, OR, NM, FL, PA, MN, OH, TX. Just because we haven't seen it in the lab, doesn't mean it can't be out there on there on the street. See coverage summary for details. Depending on the time of month, the most recent data point for graphs with counts may seem artificially low.
Variation
These graphs show the proliferation of different nitazene molecules, with a breakpoint in July 2025.
Total Volume of Nitazenes
Nitazenes Relative to Other Substances
It's important to put nitazenes in context of the broader drug supply. Methamphetamine and fentanyl are the most common drugs we see. But, on our Watchlist are the following:
Let's plot these Watchlist substances, normalizing by total volume of samples analyzed by UNC. For these plots we are using date of collection.
Now, let's redraw the last graph to show the time course of nitazene volume relative to other Watchlist substances.
Nitazenes remain a minuscule part of the volume of substances we test. In proportion to other substances on the Watchlist.