Potent synthetic opioids: preparing for a future threat
Incident planning for potent synthetic opioids arriving into the illicit drug market.
Applies to England
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Local areas should use this guidance when preparing their response to incidents caused by potent synthetic opioids like nitazenes or fentanyl.
They can do this by working through existing mechanisms for emergency preparation, response and recovery to develop a plan that can be enacted quickly in the event of an incident. For example, with the local resilience forum or health resilience partnership.
The plan should enable local partners to rapidly:
- understand the scale of the threat and assess the risk
- communicate the threat
- take actions to mitigate the threat
This guidance was originally developed in partnership with the Local Government Association.
Updates to this page
Published 8 May 2018Last updated 1 August 2024 + show all updates
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Added new section 'Drug testing to reduce harm' and updated section 'Drug testing and screening for surveillance'.
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Updated to take account of recent changes in the opioids appearing on the illicit drug market.
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First published.