WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – West Palm Beach Police have confiscated a new drug that can be 50 times more powerful than fentanyl, according to a social media post by Florida Poison Control. N-Desethyl Isotonitazene, also known as ISO, is a synthetic opioid. In addition to West Palm Beach, it’s also been detected in Philadelphia and Washington D.C.
“We had some of it tested and it came back 50 times more potent than the normal fentanyl,” Lieutenant Joseph Herb of the West Palm Beach Police Department told NBC 6 South Florida.
Emily’s Hope has previously reported on drugs similar to ISO, including N-Desethyl etonitazene, which killed a person in Colorado in December.
According to the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, nitazenes were developed by researchers 60 years ago as an alternative to morphine, but they were never released because of their high potential for overdose.
While reports of nitazene-related incidents are still relatively low in the United States, a crisis has emerged in Europe. Public Health Scotland issued an alert after witnessing 25 nitazene-related deaths.
“Due to their unexpected presence in the drug supply and high potency, nitazenes pose a substantial risk of overdose, drug-related hospitalization and drug-related death,” Public Health Scotland wrote in the alert.
