Changing composition of street drug nyaope and its implications in South Africa

Abstract

Nyaope is a Novel Psychoacve Substance (NPS) that connues to bring major challenges to the health and social well-being of users and  their communies in South Africa. The acve ingredients that make up this cocktail drug Nyaope were first idenfied in 2015 using Time-of- flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) in the samples collected from the surrounding areas of the capital city Pretoria, and they were found  to be variable across the samples. This variability had posed challenges to the treatment and rehabilitaon programmes. The current study  was conducted in 2020, and included significantly a larger number of Nyaope samples collected from two provinces: Gauteng and  Kwa Zulu-Natal of South Africa. The analycal method applied was also an improved model of TOF-MS analyser with a larger library of  various drugs and their metabolites for matching the ingredients. Strikingly, many non-addicve drugs that were found in the previous  samples were not found in this study. The new trend of formulaon has become more addicve and compact with major opiates and a few  selected opioids, and with paracetamol and caffeine in different combinaons. This study reports differences in the physical appearance  and the chemical composion of street drug Nyaope across the 2 provinces of South Africa: Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal (KZN), and also  compared with the previous findings of 2015 in the samples collected in Gauteng province. The drug appears to be widely consumed and  has serious health consequences as per previous studies, and therefore, understanding the chemical substances used in the drug will be  helpful in both treatment and rehabilitaon efforts.