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The synthetic drug, considered 100 times more powerful than fentanyl, was determined to have caused the death of a man along the river, marking the latest in an increase in overdose involving synthetic drugs, public health officials said.
Carfentanil is a Schedule II synthetic drug with similar chemicals to fentanyl and is used in Wildnil, an elephant anesthetic, according to the National Library of Medicine. A riverside man in his 40s fatally overdose of the substance in March, which had not been officially determined until this month, Riverside University Health System said in a news release.
Illegally manufactured fentanyl drugs such as Carfentanil entered the illegal market in the northeastern United States in 2013 as an alternative to white powder heroin, the CDC said in its report. Carfentanyl, 10,000 times stronger than morphine, could be fatal in just a portion of the 2-milligram range of fentanyl, health officials said.
“All lives lost from opioids are too many,” Riverside County Public Health Officer Dr. Jennifer Schevinski said in the release.
It says that cases of Carfentanil overdose are rare, but are on the rise. The number of deaths in the US involving Carfentanil increased from 29 in the first half of 2023 to 238 in the first half of 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Carfentanil is defined as unique, illegally manufactured fentanyl, an opioid produced without the regulation of pharmaceutical grade fentanyl. This means that it may not be detected by some fentanyl test strips, leading to an accidental increase in overdose, health officials added. Overall opioid overdoses have declined nationwide and in both Riverside County, but the CDC said the re-emergence of Carfentanil “may threaten this progress.”
“Together we can continue to raise awareness about the risks associated with drug use and our work as a community, supporting safety, reducing each other’s harm and care, and reducing care,” Schevinski said.
The Riverside University Health System recommended that individuals carry Naloxone to treat people overdose with fentanyl and avoid using Carfentanil even in small quantities due to the unpredictability and efficacy of the substance.
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