Cops warn about fentanyl and heroin drug called ‘gray death’ that’s 10,000 times more potent than morphine and just touching it can kill you – as lethal mixture is found in Louisiana for the first time
- Louisiana deputies have discovered ‘gray death’ in the state for the first time
- The drug first surfaced in the United States in 2017 and looks like concrete and varies in consistency from a hard, chunky material to a fine powder
- Gray death is a lethal combination of some of the most deadly opioids including heroin, fentanyl, and various fentanyl analogues
- The drug is said to have a potency that’s 10,000 times greater than morphine
- Deputies from the St Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office discovered the drug during a bust last week; suspects were also carrying cocaine and crystal meth
Louisiana officials are warning people to stay away from a lethal drug combination after it turned up for the first time in the state..
The drug, which first surfaced in the United States in 2017, is called ‘gray death’.
It’s a dangerous opioid combo that looks like concrete and varies in consistency from a hard, chunky material to a fine powder.
Gray death is a dangerous combination of some of the most deadly opioids, including heroin, fentanyl, and various fentanyl analogues.
Authorities are warning people to stay away from ‘gray death’ (pictured), a lethal drug so potent that it could kill you as it surfaces for the first time in Louisiana
The drug first surfaced in the US in 2017. It’s a dangerous opioid combo that looks like concrete and varies in consistency from a hard, chunky material to a fine powder. Police confiscated the gray death (center) along with cocaine (left) and crystal meth (right)
Deputies from St Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office discovered the substance that is reported to have a potency 10,000 times greater than morphine, during an arrest last week.
‘A minuscule amount of this drug can kill,’ the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Authorities shared photos of the drug they confiscated from suspects who were traveling across St Mary Parish from the Lake Charles area.
‘The public is advised to never pick up or touch this drug if you ever encounter it and to call and report it to law enforcement,’ police said.
Investigators who nicknamed the street mixture in 2017 detected it or recorded overdoses blamed on it in Alabama, Georgia and Ohio.
The substance is a combination of several opioids blamed for thousands of fatal overdoses nationally, including heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil — sometimes used to tranquilize large animals like elephants — and a synthetic opioid called U-47700.
‘Gray death is one of the scariest combinations that I have ever seen in nearly 20 years of forensic chemistry drug analysis,’ Deneen Kilcrease, manager of the chemistry section at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said.
The drug’s ingredients and their concentrations are unknown to users, making it particularly lethal, Kilcrease said.
Deputies from St Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office discovered the substance that is reported to have a potency 10,000 times greater than morphine, during an arrest last week
And because these strong drugs can be absorbed through the skin, simply touching the powder puts users at risk, she said.
Last year, the US 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’s estate after the musician’s overdose death last year contained U-47700.
‘Gray Death’ first surfaced in 2017 in Alabama and Georgia
The substance is a combination of several opioids blamed for thousands of fatal overdoses nationally, including heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil — sometimes used to tranquilize large animals like elephants — and a synthetic opioid called U-47700.
‘Gray death is one of the scariest combinations that I have ever seen in nearly 20 years of forensic chemistry drug analysis,’ Deneen Kilcrease, manager of the chemistry section at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said.
The drug’s ingredients and their concentrations are unknown to users, making it particularly lethal, Kilcrease said.
And because these strong drugs can be absorbed through the skin, simply touching the powder puts users at risk, she said.
Last year, the US 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’s estate after the musician’s overdose death last year contained U-47700.
Gray death has a much higher potency than heroin, according to the Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. Users inject, swallow, smoke or snort it.
Officials said the drug is powerful and cheap, for both buyers and manufacturers.
Gray death can be purchased for as little as $10, and manufactures can make it with whatever ingredients they have available at the time.
The state of Georgia has reported at least 17 overdoses, at least six deaths from U-47700 and 12 deaths from furanyl fentanyl, plus over 50 reports of the drug in use.
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.
The mixing poses a deadly risk to users and also challenges investigators trying to figure out what they’re dealing with this time around, said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, a Republican.
‘Normally, we would be able to walk by one of our scientists, and say “What are you testing?” and they’ll tell you heroin or “We’re testing fentanyl,”‘ DeWine said.
‘Now, sometimes they’re looking at it, at least initially, and say, “Well, we don’t know.”‘
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.
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 in 2016, most the result of opioid painkillers or their relative, heroin.
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