Deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl found in brown powder sample submitted for drug testing at CanTEST

Canberra's drug testing service has detected the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl in a brown powder sample for the first time.

Fentanyl and carfentanil were already found in the comparative study, but fentanyl had not previously been detected in a sample submitted for testing.

The discovery comes less than three weeks after CanTEST alerted the community after a type of Nitazene was found in a counterfeit oxycodone pill.

The clinical director of CanTEST, Dr. David Caldicott, said the latest discovery was “significantly concerning”.

“It is a very effective drug and is generally not expected by consumers.

“People who use a product containing this drug may therefore face major medical difficulties.”

The brown powder submitted for testing was found to contain paracetamol, caffeine, heroin, 6-MAM and fentanyl.

Dr. Caldicott said the person who brought in the sample “did not know” it contained fentanyl.

“The sample was given because of this concern,” he said.

Dr. Caldicott warned that the color of the drug was “random” and stressed the importance of testing.

“It could be any color,” he said.

“50 times stronger than heroin”

Fentanyl is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and around 100 times more potent than morphine.

The synthetic opioid can lead to a fatal overdose. Signs of overdose include loss of consciousness, pinpoint pupils, discolored lips and nails, cold or clammy skin, and choking, coughing, gurgling, or snoring.

The drug naloxone can quickly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose or adverse reaction and is available free of charge and without a prescription at pharmacies and harm reduction services across the country.

Suzanne Nielsen, deputy director of the Monash Addiction Research Center, said with a fentanyl overdose there is a very short window of time, just two minutes, to intervene, compared to around 25 minutes with heroin.

“The combination of those two things is why we’re very concerned about fentanyl.”

A decline in global heroin production, Professor Nielsen said, is leading to more of the heroin supply being contaminated with synthetic opioids, which are cheaper to produce and easier to ship.

“It's likely that with less heroin, we'll start selling these much more potent opioids along with heroin,” she said.

“We don’t want fentanyl to prevail”

The fentanyl finding was reported to emergency services, said Dr. Caldicott so that they could be better prepared for possible overdoses.

“Knowing that it's out there means we can send messages to healthcare providers and emergency services and they can be on their guard and be aware that they may have to offer a different form of resuscitation than they were expecting,” he said.

ACT Policing said it had “not identified a significant increase in overdose cases” since issuing a health alert in August and that these overdoses were still being investigated.

Dr. Caldicott said Australia's health system and widespread availability of naloxone had meant the country had so far avoided the fentanyl crisis currently gripping the United States.

“We don’t want to allow fentanyl to gain a foothold in the Australian market,” he said.

Professor Nielsen said the introduction of powerful opioids into the US drug market had led to an “almost exponential increase” in deaths and fentanyl had become the dominant drug.

“We have been watching this play out overseas in the US and we are very concerned about such discoveries starting in Australia,” she said.