People from Scotland’s homeless community have spoken out after 81 people died in three months after taking synthetic opioid “pyro”.
10:24, 01 Mar 2026Updated 10:25, 01 Mar 2026
Homeless man Joe Elder with tent in Glasgow city centre(Image: Ross Turpie – Daily Record / Sunday Mail / Reach PLC)
Glasgow’s homeless community have told of contaminated street drugs sweeping the city – after 81 people died in three months after taking synthetic opioid “pyro”.
One local man explained that his nephew suffered a fatal overdose after smoking heroin laced with the substance. Nitazenes, which are made in illegal labs and used as cutting agents in heroin and benzos, are understood to be involved in an eighth of all suspected drug deaths.
The Sunday Mail reports that they can be 800 times more potent than morphine – with mounting deaths seeing the drugs branded “Britain’s fentanyl”, referring to the deadly opioids epidemic that has ravaged the US. Glasgow’s homeless population have described harrowing scenes of people being found dead in the street and turned “black” in flats.
At the Glasgow City Mission, a man called Des, who did not want to be fully identified, said: “My nephew died two days before Christmas. It was heroin but there was stuff mixed in it. The modern stuff, it’s got an ‘n’ and a ‘z’ in the name.
“It was going around in the area he was living in. I only heard of nitazenes after my nephew died and I learned a lot of people are dying from that stuff.
“My nephew wasn’t into smack. He was drunk at a party and decided to smoke something but he wasn’t sure what he was smoking. He probably just thought it was a joint.”
Joe Elder, who is sleeping rough in a tent in Glasgow city centre, said: “The people out here take drugs to numb the pain and forget about it all.
“But there’s fentanyl in the heroin and ‘magic’ in the cocaine – just the most addictive stuff getting put into it so people will keep taking it.
“I’ve found a few friends dead. One of my friends a few months back, he was dead, black, in his flat. It was horrendous.”
Homeless mum Natasha McDermott said: “You’re finding people lying in the street. There’s a pandemic and no one really seems to care.”
Former janitor James now has a council house but is still forced to beg to pay his electricity bills(Image: DAILY RECORD)
Beggar James Mitchell, who said he is in recovery for heroin addiction, said: “It’s not just heroin, it’s the same with the cocaine as well. The majority of stuff is contaminated.
“What people don’t realise is the synthetics are hundreds of times stronger than what they’re used to. See pals I had when I was younger, there’s very few left.”
It follows a UK-wide King’s College London study this month which warned nitazenes-linked deaths could be a third higher than thought because of how quickly the opioid breaks down in blood samples.
Get more Glasgow Live exclusives by signing up for free to Google’s preferred sources
Latest Public Health Scotland RADAR figures show a record 81 suspected drug deaths involving etonitazene between July and September 2025. It was involved in nearly all nitazenes-linked fatalities, which totalled 85.
Jan Mayor, who works in Edinburgh for recovery service Turning Point Scotland, said: “We haven’t seen anything stronger than this and more toxic.”
Experts fear the surge in nitazenes will fuel a new spike in Scotland’s annual drug deaths tally, which despite a slight improvement in 2024 remains the worst in Europe.