19 killed by elephant tranquilizer so potent it's used as chemical weapon
Dozens of people in the U.S. have died from carfentanil, a seriously potent elephant tranquilizer often cut into heroin and other street drugs, in the past few months.
At least 19 have been killed in Wayne County, Michigan since July, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) said Thursday. Eight more have reportedly perished in the Cincinnati area.
Carfentanil is a seriously deadly substance. It's 100 times stronger than fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that killed Prince and is itself up to 50 times stronger than heroin. It's also 10,000 times stronger than morphine.
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It's so potent, in fact, that it was viewed as a chemical weapon before being discovered by drug dealers. And it's being freely exported to the U.S. from China, a new Associated Press investigation has revealed.
The Wayne County Medical Examiner found 19 deaths associated with carfentanil, and in every case it was combined with other opioids including heroin.
“With the confirmation that carfentanil has been linked to at least 19 deaths in Wayne County, residents and healthcare providers should be on alert to the dangers that carfentanil poses,” Dr. Eden Wells, chief medical executive with the MDHHS, said. “Opioid and heroin use alone can be fatal. With the introduction of carfentanil to the drug supply, the risks of use are even greater.”
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) issued a public warning about carfentanil in September, saying the drug "has been linked to a significant number of overdose deaths in various parts of the country." DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg called it "crazy dangerous."
The onset of adverse health effects, which include "disorientation, coughing, sedation, respiratory distress or cardiac arrest," occurs within minutes, the MDHHS said.
However, the AP has found 12 Chinese companies that will export the drug, which is currently legal in China, to the U.S., Canada, UK and Australia for as little as $2,750 per kilogram.
Jilin Tely Import and Export Co. is one such company. They told reporters over email in September that carfentanil was "one of our hot sales products."
A batch of carfentanil hidden in a package of printer accessories was seized in Vancouver in August. A Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer told reporters at the time it was enough for 50 million fatal doses. Police handling the package were forced to wear hazmat suits for safety.
Carfentanil was first developed in the 1970s, and its only routine use is as an anesthetic for elephants and other large animals. Governments quickly targeted it as a potential chemical weapon.
Forms of fentanyl are suspected in at least one known assassination attempt, the AP reports, and were used by Russian forces against Chechen separatists who took hundreds of hostages at a Moscow theater in 2002. The chemicals are banned from the battlefield under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Carfentanil is not a controlled substance in China, where it is manufactured legally and sold openly online. The U.S. government is pressing China to blacklist carfentanil, but Beijing has yet to act, leaving a substance whose lethal qualities have been compared with nerve gas to flow into foreign markets unabated.
"It's a weapon," said Andrew Weber, assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs from 2009 to 2014. "Companies shouldn't be just sending it to anybody."
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
Tim Chester was Senior Editor, Real Time News in Los Angeles. Before that he was Deputy Editor of Mashable UK in London. Prior to joining Mashable, Tim was a Senior Web Editor at Penguin Random House, helping to relaunch the Rough Guides website and other travel brands. He was also a writer for Buzzfeed, GQ and The Sunday Times, covering everything from culture to tech and current affairs. Before that, he was Deputy Editor at NME.COM, overseeing content and development on the London-based music and entertainment site. Tim loves music and travel and has combined these two passions at festivals from Iceland to Malawi and beyond.
