A new drug said to be 100 times more potent than heroin has been linked to a woman's death in an ACT first.
The woman, who The Canberra Times has chosen not to name, was 42 years old when she died in her Ainslie home in July 2022.
An ACT Coroner's Court decision, published on Thursday, September 10, determined she died from multiple drug toxicity.
While lethal concentrations of methadone, morphine and codeine were found in her blood, further analysis discovered protonitazene, a highly potent synthetic opioid.
This drug is said to be at least 100 times more potent than heroin and stronger than fentanyl.
Part of a group of drugs known as novel psychoactive substances, protonitazene was first detected in the US and Canada in 2020.
Coroner Ken Archer said the woman's 2022 death was the first case in the ACT coronial system where protonitazene toxicity was identified as a factor possibly contributing to death.
"It is in the public interest to highlight the significant risks to users of illicit drugs, including heroin, who may be unaware of the presence of [novel psychoactive substances] in the substances they consume," Mr Archer said.
In early September, ACT Policing renewed warnings about potentially lethal drugs in Canberra after seven suspected overdose deaths in one month.
An alert was also sent out in August, when five people died within a fortnight.
The published coronial decision stated that during an unrelated investigation into a Canberra drug syndicate, police discovered that the woman's housemate had been purchasing drugs from two people.
When police searched the home of one of the dealers, they discovered the woman's name written in a tick list of customers. A large amount of protonitazene was also found.
Mr Archer said drug testing services provided by CanTEST "increases the potential for users to identify the presence of [these substances] in drugs that might be presently circulating within the community".
He said that while drug warnings were issued on an ad hoc basis, it is difficult to determine how long drugs containing protonitazene remain in the distribution cycle.
Mr Archer warned "a dangerous circumstance" is that heroin producing a greater high "can become popular in the market place".
"Heroin with higher purity levels or heroin with [synthetic opioids] added can produce that effect.
"Both circumstances created significant dangers for even experienced users."
