High Alert/Supplied
A highly potent synthetic opioid misrepresented as butonitazene was detected in an orange powder in Wellington.
A warning has been issued for drug users to be extremely cautious after an orange powder was discovered to be a highly potent synthetic opioid.
Drug information alert service, High Alert, warned that consuming the drug, which had been sold in Wellington as butonitazene, could lead to serious harm, including death.
The substance was possibly in circulation nationwide, High Alert said.
Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) had analysed a sample of the orange powder and found it contained either N-pyrrolidino-protonitazene or N-pyrrolidino-isotonitazene, which are significantly more potent than butonitazene.
Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm said High Alert’s Friday warning was just the latest in a series of warnings about nitazenes, a family of synthetic opioids that can be 25 times more potent than fentanyl.
First detected in New Zealand a year ago, nitazenes may have already been linked to deaths, Helm said, and are especially concerning if they are being sold as something else.
“These are very potent drugs that can cause overdose and death at very low doses, especially if people don’t know that they’re taking them.”
Helm is concerned the community of people that use drugs are unaware of the issue.
Supplied
NZ Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm is concerned that people using drugs may be unaware of the issue and the high potential for overdose.
“We’ve seen them sold around the country in many different colours and forms including pills, powders, gel caps and liquids. So we are urging people, no matter what they have and how experienced they are, to get their drugs checked if they can.”
Free, legal drug checking is available at clinics across the country.
“We are concerned that the variety of forms that these drugs can come in, and the misrepresentation of what the drug is, may mean people with little experience or preparation are at risk.
“Even people who are used to taking opioids are finding themselves in trouble. Because these drugs are so potent, it is hard to measure an accurate dose.”
ROSA WOODS/STUFF
Sequoia King’s addiction to opiate painkillers almost killed her. Video first published March 2019
The increase in nitazenes in the community means it is crucial to improve the availability of opioid overdose reversal medicine naloxone, Helm said.
“Naloxone saves lives and can reverse a nitazene overdose. We’re urging people to get their hands on it if they can, but we need to make it easier to get,” she said.
In September, High Alert warned that yellow tablets being sold online as oxycodone were actually metonitazene.
In September, a warning was issued over fake oxycodene pills after a man died in Napier.
