A potentially fatal synthetic opioid called etonitazene was found at the scene of the deaths of a man and a woman in their 40s, prompting Essex police to issue a caution.
Etonitazene is at least 1,000 times more strong than morphine and 40 times more potent than fentanyl.
It is typically applied to animals for addiction research and is known by the street name Pyro.
Essex Police said: “This substance may pose a high risk to users and anyone handling it.
“Synthetic opioids are occasionally added to illicit drugs like heroin to enhance the potency, but they substantially increase the risk of respiratory arrest in users.”
But what are synthetic opioids?
What are synthetic opioids?
According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, synthetic opioids are drugs that are created in a lab and work on the same brain receptors as natural opioids to produce pain-relief effects.
Natural opioids, on the other hand, are naturally occurring chemicals that are taken from the seed pod of specific poppy plant species.
According to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACDM), synthetic opioids need much smaller doses to provide the intended effects for users and warned that there is also a “high risk of accidental overdose” as a result.
They cautioned that this could have life-threatening side effects, including unconsciousness, cardiorespiratory arrest, and death, and that it was consistent with the effects of well-known, highly strong opioids like fentanyl.
As a result, the Home Office banned 11 synthetic opioids in February of this year on the advice of the ACMD, to stop lethal drugs from claiming more lives.
The banned substances, part of the Class A of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, are butonitazene, etodesnitazene (etazene), flunitazene, isotonitazene, metodesnitazene (metazene), metonitazene, N-Desethylisotonitazene, N-piperidinyl-etonitazene (etonitazepipne), N-pyrrolidino-etonitazene (etonitazepyne), protonitazene, and brorphine.
The Government says synthetic opioids are often mixed with other pills sold on the street.
Opioid abuse has been a public health concern across the world for many years now.
Lancet study data from 152 local authorities, taken between April 2010 and March 2017, uncovered there were 14,700 opioid-related deaths and 280,827 opioid overdose hospital admissions in England.
