As newer and stronger synthetic opioids and synthetic opioid combinations continue to cause overdose flare-ups across the United States, Crime labs are working to identify these unfamiliar drugs.
A new report from STAT examined the issue. Here are five key takeaways from the report.
1. While the opioid analogs fentanyl and carfentanil — an elephant tranquilizer lethal for humans in minute doses — are now widely known, new analogs are cropping up in communities scattered across the nation.
2. Redesigning synthetic opioids at the chemical level can be used to increase the drugs' potency and, in certain cases, undercut drug laws.
3. Examples of new synthetics include "grey death" and U-47700. When these opioid analogs infiltrate a community, they can cause dozens of overdoses in just a matter of hours.
4. Knowing what drugs are circulating in a community can aid law enforcement and prosecutors in bringing legal cases against drug dealers, and inform first responders as to how much of the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone they should carry.
5. In Baltimore, firefighters responding to 911 calls and emergency room physicians now report sudden upticks in opioid overdoses to Leana Wen, MD, the city's health commissioner, who can dispatch outreach teams to hard-hit areas of the city in the same day.
"We act on that information in real time," Dr. Wen told STAT. "Even if it's imperfect data, that data is critical in a time of a public health emergency."
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