Introducing Medetomidine, The Most Recent Addition To The Illegal Drug Supply

For good reason, most people consider opioids the hardest of hard drugs. They are among the most addictive substances around; perhaps only nicotine, the active ingredient in tobacco, is more addictive. Opioid overdose can cause life-threatening respiratory depression, and for the past several years, the synthetic opioid fentanyl has caused more fatal overdoses than any other drug. Even in a drug supply where prescription opioid pills, genuine and counterfeit, are prevalent, a large share of opioid abuse involves injecting the drugs intravenously, the riskiest route of administration for reasons that extend beyond the risk of drug overdose. Fentanyl is 100 times as strong as morphine, but it is not even the strongest opioid out there, as chemists continue to synthesize stronger synthetic opioids. If opioids are no longer the scariest drugs around, it is because of naloxone, a drug that can quickly reverse the effects of opioid overdose. Recently, though, investigators have found that a veterinary tranquilizer is becoming increasingly prevalent in street drug powders that purport to be opioids, and it does not respond to naloxone. If you are facing criminal charges related to possession of the veterinary drug medetomidine, contact a West Palm Beach drug offenses lawyer.
A New Year, a New Veterinary Drug Finding a New Calling in Recreational Use By Humans
For the past several years, authorities have warned the public that drug powders bought on the street may contain the veterinary tranquilizer xylazine; drug dealers mix xylazine with opioids because it is inexpensive and because they believe that it will prolong the effects of the opioids, leading to a product that buyers find more desirable. South Florida has been a xylazine hotspot for several years. The biggest danger of xylazine is that, because it is not an opioid, it is not possible to reverse its sedative effects with naloxone.
Since 2022, though, another veterinary tranquilizer has appeared in the drug supply. Medetomidine was first synthesized in 2007. It does not have any legally accepted medical uses for humans, but veterinarians give it in low doses to dogs and cats for pain relief and in higher doses for anesthesia during surgery. Drug dealers mix medetomidine into drug powders for the same reasons that they use xylazine; it is inexpensive and makes the opioids seem more potent. First responders who have treated patients who overdosed on medetomidine have noticed that the patients have dangerously low heartbeats, as low as 20 beats per minute, when a normal resting heart rate is around 60 beats per minute. As with many other illegal drugs, medetomidine seems to be concentrated in certain geographic areas; mass overdose events involving medetomidine have been documented in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Toronto, but the drug is becoming more prevalent nationwide.
Contact a West Palm Beach Criminal Defense Lawyer Today
Attorney William Wallshein has more than 38 years of experience, including five years as a prosecutor in Palm Beach County. Contact William Wallshein P.A. in West Palm Beach, Florida to discuss your case.
Source:
npr.org/2024/05/31/nx-s1-4974959/medetomidine-overdose-fentanyl-sedative