A lethal substance dubbed the “Frankenstein” of opioids is anticipated to appear on Melbourne’s streets shortly.
Experts caution that nitazenes, which are 500 times more potent than heroin, are being mixed with party drugs and fake prescription medications.
In Victoria, the synthetic street drug has already claimed 17 lives.
Among them was 18-year-old Jetson Gordon, who in 2022 took what he believed to be a pill to aid with his sleep.
Without understanding it, the apprentice carpenter had ordered oxycodone online, which is 43 times more potent than fentanyl, and had it cut with nitazene.
His distraught father John said, “It’s been a living hell, you lose your son… it’s so preventable, just unfathomable.”
“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else or any other family go through what we have had to go through.”
John Ryan, the CEO of Penington Institute, issued a warning that ignorant Australians were being deliberately killed by nitazenes.
“They’re the Frankenstein of opiods, they’re made in the lab and they’re now out in the community actually killing people,” he stated.
“We are really failing to face up to this problem and I think inaction is a real risk that we will end up sleep walking into an overdose catastrophy.”
Head of VIFM’s Drug Intelligence Unit Jennifer Shumann reported that the lab is seeing nitazene appear in ecstasy and cocaine pills.
A lethal dosage of just two milligrammes has been reported, and the drug has been discovered combined with other substances marketed as MDMA, ketamine, heroin, fake medications, and even vape pens.
According to Shane Patton, Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, the state is ready for an increase in overdose deaths.
“That’s a huge issue for us, I know the drugs task force is looking at that… our forensic area is looking at the intelligence coming in from that,” he stated.
In Australia, the number of drug-related deaths has nearly doubled during the previous 20 years.
More than,300 deaths occur per year, according to the most recent data from 2022, an increase from the year before.
Of these overdose deaths, 80% were unintentional.
The primary killers are opioids, benzodiazepines, and stimulants like methamphetamines.
“It’s horrendous, I never planned on this, we don’t get to have grandchildren anymore and we’ve got to prevent it from ever happening again,” Jetson’s father John says.
