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Increased deaths due to synthetic opioid substances, coroner says

7 years 3 months 4 days ago Thursday, December 22 2016 Dec 22, 2016 December 22, 2016 6:53 PM December 22, 2016 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE – The East Baton Rouge Coroner's Office says there has been a large increase in overdoses related to synthetic opioid substances.

Coroner Beau Clark said a recent death was directly related to the use of several substances considered "Novel Psychoactive/Synthetic Opioid Substances." According to Clark, the substances are deadly chemical compounds of other drugs.

Clark said that substances identified in the recent death are as follows:

Etizolam –a substance made to mimic benzodiazipines. It has been available on the internet in the past, and can cause death with as little as one tablet. It also has potentially deadly interactions with traditional depressants, including alcohol.

Furanyl Fentanyl - sold as a "designer drug." Very low doses of this drug are potentially deadly by themselves. That danger is greatly increased when used with any other depressants.

U-47700 - street name "pinky" or "pink", is an opioid that has around 7.5 times the potency of morphine. There have been numerous deaths associated with the use of this drug across the United States.

Clark's office says that jurisdictions are trying to make the sale and possession of these drugs illegal.

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