Fentanyl: The drug 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin

A drug 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin has hospitalised 12 people in Wairarapa over the span of a weekend. Health experts and advocates are calling for greater support systems amid reports of fentanyl circulating in the community.

But what is fentanyl, why is it so dangerous, and how do we keep safe against the substance causing havoc overseas?

Fentanyl is a synthetic opiate, used as a painkiller in legitimate medical settings, according to Massey University Associate Professor Chris Wilkins.

“The unusual thing about fentanyl is that it’s a synthetic opioid. It’s not like heroin or morphine that comes from the actual opium plant, it’s made in a lab essentially,” he said.

“Fentanyl is extremely potent, it’s used in situations where people have severe pain.”

The first fentanyl product in New Zealand was approved in December 1969, according to the Ministry of Health.

NEW HAMPSHIRE STATE POLICE FORENSIC LAB

Erickson was the general manager of a private ambulance service that was audited by MedSafe due to an “irregular high quantity of morphine and fentanyl” (file photo).

Prescription fentanyl is usually applied in a patch on the skin, but it can also be given as a shot, or a lozenge for severe and/or constant pain such as that caused by cancer, or experienced after a surgery.

Fentanyl is also known to be used recreationally however, both intentionally and unintentionally, via contaminated party drugs such as MDMA and cocaine.

Deputy director of the New Zealand Drug Foundation Ben Birks-Ang said “unexpected consumption of fentanyl” was a massive risk.

“This current situation is where people have been given a substance sold as something else, and they didn’t realise there was fentanyl in it,” he said.

Harry Booth/Stuff

Ben Birks-Ang says the best way to stay safe is to test drugs you are planning on consuming.

The substance was sold as cocaine and methamphetamine in Wairarapa over the weekend.

“It depends on body weight, but 2 milligrams is enough to kill somebody, it’s really tiny. That’s the danger, if somebody has taken something else, and It’s got just a small amount of fentanyl in it…It’s enough to give them an opioid overdose,” Birks-Ang said.

“You can sell fentanyl as counterfeit for a whole lot of different drugs like morphine, cocaine and methamphetamine, it’s pretty easy to disguise as something else,” Wilkins said.

Birks-Ang said the best way to stay safe was for people to test drugs they were planning on consuming.

“People can do that at a free, legal and completely confidential drug checking clinic…the other thing they can do is use a fentanyl test strip,” he said.

A fentanyl test strip is a chemical test that detects the presence of fentanyl in a drug sample.

“Following the event in Wairarapa, a range of local prevention initiatives are underway,” a Ministry of Health spokesperson said.

A local ‘pop-up’ drug checking event was held in Masterton on June 30.

Fentanyl test strips were being shared amongst health providers to ensure there was local access in Wairarapa at low or no cost.

Supplied

The Ministry of Health does not collect data on the number of hospitalisations due to fentanyl. (File photo)

Interim Health NZ had also approved funding for the NZ Drug Foundation to purchase 7000 additional fentanyl test strips. These were expected in New Zealand as soon as next week.

The Ministry of Health said supplies of Naloxone, a medicine used to treat opioid overdoses, were strong for emergency responders and there were no supply issues.

The ministry did not collect data on the number of hospitalisations due to fentanyl.

Drug-checking clinics, times and locations can be found here.

Fentanyl testing strips can be found here.