COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014 It\u2019s being called \u201cgray death\u201d \u2014 a new and dangerous opioid combo that underscores the ever-changing nature of the U.S. addiction crisis.<\/p>\n
Investigators who nicknamed the mixture have detected it or recorded overdoses blamed on it in Alabama, Georgia and Ohio. The drug looks like concrete mix and varies in consistency from a hard, chunky material to a fine powder.<\/p>\n
The substance is a combination of several opioids blamed for thousands of fatal overdoses nationally, including heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil \u2013 sometimes used to tranquilize large animals like elephants \u2013 and a synthetic opioid called U-47700.<\/p>\n
\u201cGray death is one of the scariest combinations that I have ever seen in nearly 20 years of forensic chemistry drug analysis,\u201d Deneen Kilcrease, manager of the chemistry section at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said.\u00a0 Gray death ingredients and their concentrations are unknown to users, making it particularly lethal, Kilcrease said. In addition, because these strong drugs can be absorbed through the skin, simply touching the powder puts users at risk, she said.<\/p>\n
Last year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration listed U-47700 in the category of the most dangerous drugs it regulates, saying it was associated with dozens of fatalities, mostly in New York and North Carolina. Some of the pills taken from Prince\u2019s estate after the musician\u2019s overdose death last year contained U-47700.<\/p>\n
Gray death has a much higher potency than heroin, according to a bulletin issued by the Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. Users inject, swallow, smoke or snort it.<\/p>\n
Georgia\u2019s investigation bureau has received 50 overdose cases in the past three months involving gray death, most from the Atlanta area, said spokeswoman Nelly Miles.<\/p>\n
In Ohio, the coroner\u2019s office serving the Cincinnati area says a similar compound has been coming in for months. The Ohio attorney general \u2018s office has analyzed eight samples matching the gray death mixture from around the state.<\/p>\n
The combo is just the latest in the trend of heroin mixed with other opioids, such as fentanyl, that has been around for a few years.\u00a0 Fentanyl-related deaths spiked so high in Ohio in 2015 that state health officials asked the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to send scientists to help address the problem.<\/p>\n
The mixing poses a deadly risk to users and also challenges investigators trying to figure out what they\u2019re dealing with this time around, said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, a Republican.<\/p>\n
\u201cNormally, we would be able to walk by one of our scientists, and say \u2018What are you testing?\u2019 and they\u2019ll tell you heroin or \u2018We\u2019re testing fentanyl,’\u201d DeWine said. \u201cNow, sometimes they\u2019re looking at it, at least initially, and say, \u2018Well, we don\u2019t know.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Some communities also are seeing fentanyl mixed with non-opioids, such as cocaine. In Rhode Island, the state has recommended that individuals with a history of cocaine use receive supplies of the anti-overdose drug naloxone.<\/p>\n
These deadly combinations are becoming a hallmark of the heroin and opioid epidemic, which the government says resulted in 33,000 fatal overdoses nationally in 2015. In Ohio, a record 3,050 people died of drug overdoses last year, most the result of opioid painkillers or their relative, heroin.<\/p>\n
Most people with addictions buy heroin in the belief that\u2019s exactly what they\u2019re getting, overdose survivor Richie Webber said.\u00a0 But that\u2019s often not the case, as he found out in 2014 when he overdosed on fentanyl-laced heroin. It took two doses of naloxone to revive him. He\u2019s now sober and runs a treatment organization, Fight for Recovery, in Clyde, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southeast of Toledo.<\/p>\n
A typical new combination he\u2019s seeing is heroin combined with 3-methylfentanyl, a more powerful version of fentanyl, said Webber, 25. It\u2019s one of the reasons he tells users never to take drugs alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t know what you\u2019re getting with these things,\u201d Webber said. \u201cEvery time you shoot up you\u2019re literally playing Russian roulette with your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2017\/05\/04\/opioid-gray-death-overdoses\/\u00a0 4th May 2017<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014 It\u2019s being called \u201cgray death\u201d \u2014 a new and dangerous opioid combo that underscores the ever-changing nature of the U.S. addiction crisis. Investigators who nicknamed the mixture have detected it or recorded overdoses blamed on it in Alabama, Georgia and Ohio. The drug looks like concrete mix and varies in consistency from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,64,14,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-addiction","category-health","category-social-affairs","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}