{"id":132495,"date":"2025-11-10T17:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/132495\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T17:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:29:10","slug":"powerful-dark-web-drug-linked-to-rising-narcotics-fatalities-in-northern-ireland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/132495\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Powerful\u2019 dark web drug linked to rising narcotics fatalities in Northern Ireland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

An \u201cincredibly powerful\u201d new drug available on the dark web <\/a>has been linked to an increase in drug-related deaths in Northern Ireland<\/a>, a coroner\u2019s court has heard.<\/p>\n

At an inquest into the death of 33-year-old Jay Woolsey on Monday, a coroner warned of the \u201cemerging threat\u201d of Nitazene<\/a>, a psychoactive substance and highly potent synthetic opioid stronger than heroin.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir potency and risk of fatal overdose cannot be overstated,\u201d Anne-Louise Toal told the hearing, sitting at Banbridge courthouse.<\/p>\n

Mr Woolsey, from Tandragee Road in Portadown, was found dead at his home by his mother on August 9th last year.<\/p>\n

A postmortem found his death was caused by respiratory failure after ingesting several substances, including pyrrolidino isotonitazene<\/a>, from the Nitazene group of drugs.<\/p>\n

His mother, Gillian McCann, was able to access his computer and found how he searched for drugs online.<\/p>\n

Giving evidence, Mrs McCann spoke of the impact of her son\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur lives are just completely devastated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will never be okay again without having Jay there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forensic pathologist Mark Egan, who carried out the postmortem, said the drug had caused Mr Woolsey\u2019s lungs to \u201cslow down\u201d and that its strong sedative effect had likely led him to fall asleep before entering respiratory arrest.<\/p>\n

Dr Egan told the court that Nitazene was around \u201c20 times more potent than fentanyl\u201d and \u201cseveral times more potent than morphine and heroin\u201d.<\/p>\n

Levels of cannabis, MDMA and methamphetamines were also identified in his toxicology report. There was no alcohol in his blood.<\/p>\n

In her evidence, Mrs McCann spoke of how her son had struggled with mental health problems since his early teens and was receiving counselling.<\/p>\n

He \u201cwanted help\u201d and texted his mother to say he had received counselling two nights before his death, she told the court.<\/p>\n

She was due to meet him and believed he was looking forward to his future.<\/p>\n

\u201cJay was a very charismatic, lovely guy. He was piano-trained, played guitar and loved to make music. He was a great son and great brother. He tried to be the best father he could to his wee boy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Forensic scientist Amy Quinn told the court that Nitazenes were being sold as tablets, powders, nasal sprays, for injection or inhalation through sniffing or vaping.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve also been found as an adulterant in other illicit products, such as cocaine and other opioids with heroin and fentanyl,\u201d said Dr Quinn.<\/p>\n

She said it \u201cwasn\u2019t beyond the realms of possibility\u201d that Mr Woolsey wouldn\u2019t have known that the drug he bought online contained the substance.<\/p>\n

The police officer investigating the case, PSNI detective constable Simon Duffin, said he believed Mr Woolsey had bought drugs on the dark web.<\/p>\n

A postal package found in his home indicated he was \u201cbuying drugs online\u201d, he told the court.<\/p>\n

However, the detective noted the difficulties in tracing online sellers due to the nature of the dark web.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows a random web address, it\u2019s a jumbled-up mess of letters and numbers that don\u2019t tell you what the website is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he was aware of \u201cseveral deaths\u201d in the area linked to Nitazene.<\/p>\n

Before delivering her findings, the coroner praised Mrs McCann\u2019s courage in raising awareness about drugs following her son\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it is every parent\u2019s worst nightmare to live through this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Toal said the inquest had highlighted \u201cthe emerging threat of Nitazene as a drug of abuse\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that the death of Jay, an otherwise healthy 33-year-old man, who should have been expected to have many years ahead of him, should serve to underline such dangers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An \u201cincredibly powerful\u201d new drug available on the dark web has been linked to an increase in drug-related…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,2443],"class_list":["post-132495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}