HSE prepares for arrival of killer synthetic drugs following Taliban opium crop crackdown 

A report this week highlights emerging accounts of nitazenes 'contaminating the UK’s heroin supply'.

The HSE is ramping up preparations and testing services in the event that possible shortages of heroin in Dublin could be filled by more powerful synthetic versions of the drug.

A crackdown by the extremist Taliban regime in Afghanistan on the opium crop, from which heroin is made, is being blamed in the UK for a gap in the market, which drug agencies say is being filled by synthetic opiates.