A new – and potentially fatal – drug has hit North Texas, according to the North Texas Poison Center in Dallas.
The drug, U-47700, is a synthetic opioid that has been around since the 1970s, but in recent months has gained popularity through websites and Internet forum discussions, a news release from the North Texas Poison Center at Parkland Health and Hospital System states.
The drug, readily available through the internet, has surfaced in the Dallas area, officials said. However, there have been no reports of the substance in Cooke County.
“The drug has not surfaced in Cooke County as far as we know,” Sheriff Terry Gilbert said.
He said the Cooke County Sheriff’s Office “strives” to keep up with all new drugs as they come onto the market, but with internet sales they can be hard to detect on occasion.
“Preparations are made as quickly as needed as far as detection, identifying and then hopefully educating the public to the harm these types of drugs can do,” Gilbert said. “It appears that U-47700 has become a recreational party drug.”
Gainesville Police Chief Kevin Phillips said his department has not seen any issues with the drug yet either, but they are aware of it.
Over the Net the drug is usually sold as a powder or granules. Potential side effects, including overdose reactions, are similar to other opiates and include slow breathing and pinpoint pupils, according to Kristina Domanski, MD, a toxicologist with the North Texas Poison Center.
Very high doses could lead to coma and eventually death, she said.
In the United States, advertisements for the drug can be found online with prices ranging from $65 to $200. U-47700 is reported to be 7.5 times more potent than morphine and health experts urge people to avoid this drug and any other recreational drug being sold online, the news release stated.
“We’ve had calls recently from people concerned about this new drug,” said Domanski in the release. “In one situation, four young adults used U-47700 at a party and while two of the people were fine, two others had to be hospitalized. One of them ended up in an ICU with respiratory depression.”
Respiratory depression, also known as hypoventilation, is a potentially life-threatening condition that can be brought on by the use of strong opioids, officials said. Domanski said in the recent case, the young people who used the drug had snorted it, thinking it would have the same effect as cocaine but instead it had an effect similar to heroin.
“This seems to be a pretty new recycling of the drug which is intended as a research drug and not for use in humans,” Domanski said. “Overdose deaths have been reported in Europe and both Sweden and Finland have made U-47700 illegal.”
