CHANGING COMPOSITION OF STREET DRUG NYAOPE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Nyaope is a Novel Psychoactive Substance (NPS) that continues to bring major challenges to the health and social well-being of users and their communities in South Africa. The active ingredients that make up this cocktail drug Nyaope were first identified 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 rehabilitation 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 analytical 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-addictive drugs that were found in the previous samples were not found in this study. The new trend of formulation has become more addictive and compact with major opiates and a few selected opioids, and with paracetamol and caffeine in different combinations. This study reports differences in the physical appearance and the chemical composition 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 rehabilitation efforts.