California Drug Experts Warn of New Drug 100 Times Stronger Than Fentanyl

Zachary Stieber
By Zachary Stieber
April 17, 2019Health
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California Drug Experts Warn of New Drug 100 Times Stronger Than Fentanyl
A small amount of carfentanil can kill a user. (Drug Enforcement Agency)

Drug experts in California, British Columbia, and other areas are warning of a powerful new drug that can easily kill its users.

Carfentanil is a synthetic opioid that’s 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times stronger than fentanyl. It’s often disguised as heroin, which is 50 times weaker than fentanyl.

“Carfentanil is surfacing in more and more communities,” then-Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg said in a 2016 alert. “We see it on the streets, often disguised as heroin. It is crazy dangerous. Synthetics such as fentanyl and carfentanil can kill you. I hope our first responders—and the public—will read and heed our health and safety warning. These men and women have remarkably difficult jobs and we need them to be well and healthy.”

The drug was originally designed as a tranquilizer for elephants and other large mammals.

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An Indian mahout washes his elephant in the Yamuna River in New Delhi on April 3, 2018. Carfentanil was originally designed as a tranquilizer for elephants and other large mammals. (Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images)

It typically comes in several forms, including powder, blotter paper, and spray, which can be absorbed through the skin.

Now experts say it’s cropping up in cities in California.

Two cases involving the drug are working their way through federal court in San Diego, including one related to overdose deaths in 2017 that led to 20 people being charged, including 14 gang members.

“Carfentanil is a threat authorities have long feared but have rarely seen on the streets. As with all types of fentanyl, it is typically either mailed to the U.S. from China in small amounts or smuggled through the U.S. border with Mexico,” reported the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Experts said that it only takes .02 milligrams of carfentanil to cause a deadly overdose or the size of several grains of salt.

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A comparison of the lethal doses of heroin, carfentanil, and fentanyl. (Drug Enforcement Agency)

“The fact that it’s as potent and deadly as it is, and we don’t know when it’s going to show up or where it’s going to show up is of most concern,” DEA Special Agent in Charge Colin Ruane told 10 News. “It’s extremely dangerous to the public and that’s what we want to get out there.”

The DEA said that three people in San Diego died from the drug in 2017 but still wants people to be cautious. Drug manufacturers are putting carfentanil in counterfeit pills and passing it off as Oxycontin or Xanax.

Officials said that people at parties where pills are being passed around should pass on taking one.

“If you’re at a pill party and people are distributing pills, you have no idea what’s inside,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri Hobson. “Why would you take something when you have no idea what’s inside?”

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(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Carfentanil’s increasing popularity can be seen through how many people it killed in recent years.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 420 deaths were linked with the drug in 2016. In 2017, 815 deaths were linked to carfentanil. The data was published in July 2018. The largest increase was detected in Ohio.

The drug has also been seen in Kentucky, Wisconsin, West Virginia, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Maine, and Massachusetts, among other states. Arizona’s first carfentanil overdose was reported in April 2018 while DEA’s first seizure of the drug in New York was reported the next month.

The drug was also detected in 13 of the 90 overdose deaths in British Columbia in Canada in January, the BC Coroners Service said in March, reported the Vancouver Sun. The opioid began showing up in British Columbia’s street drug supply in late 2016.

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