Teddy bear-shaped pills laced with synthetic opioids have been linked to a death in Queensland, triggering a public health warning about a group of highly potent illicit drugs called nitazenes.
N-pyrrolidino-protonitazene and protonitazene were detected in toxicology and samples taken from pale yellow pills marked with the letter “Y” in the state’s south-east.
A Queensland Health spokesperson said on Friday the detection “relates to a coronial matter currently under investigation” but could not comment further on the fatality.
A Queensland public health warning released last week states n-pyrrolidino-protonitazene and protonitazene are nitazenes, a group of “very strong synthetic opioids that work like heroin or fentanyl and can produce life-threatening toxicity in small amounts”.
Their toxic effect can cause extreme drowsiness, pinpoint pupils, coma, slow or obstructed breathing and respiratory failure that can lead to death.
The health body is urging anyone who suspects they may have the pills to not consume them and dispose of them safely.
The notice is the second of its kind this year, after a new nitazene known as protodesnitazene was detected for the first time in Australia in March.
Sign up: AU Breaking News email
That detection, also in Queensland, led to a health warning suggesting the drug, found in a chalky brown powder, had been sold as desmetramadol, a painkiller and recreational drug.
The Australian federal police last year said that recreational drugs including cocaine and MDMA could be laced with nitazenes. In May, the force said there had been a “worrying spike in nitazenes” after they were detected in counterfeit pain medications.
“We cannot understate the dangers which surround any use of this illicit and highly potent drug. If you choose to take it, you are gambling with your life,” acting assistant commissioner Paula Hudson said.
The latest warning comes just weeks after Queensland passed a law to make pill testing illegal, a move that was criticised by health experts and members of the public.
At the time, Cameron Francis, CEO of the Loop Australia, which operated Queensland’s Bowen Hills pill testing service, urged the LNP to pause its bid to ban pill testing, saying the government’s decision would mean more overdose deaths.
“We have no overdose monitoring system in Queensland. We have no early warning system to a local community. So I absolutely think this decision will cost lives,” he said.
Queensland Health said naloxone reverses the effect of nitazenes and that while nitazene detection strips were available, they were not always effective.
