The illicit drug trade continues to evolve and submissions into FSI have reflected the scale of seizures, the range of new substances on the market and how they are presented. For example, Section 15A case reports have increased from 45 in 2020 to 180 in 2023 – a four-fold increase that continues to increase in 2024. In November 2023 a cluster of overdoses in heroin users was attributed to Nitazenes – these are a class of synthetic opioid, reported to be at least as potent as fentanyl. Testing for these investigations was supported from FSI’s new Backweston facility.

P. 62 - case study 4: lethal fake heroin 

P.17 - types of drugs analysed in 2023