EUPHORIA HAS A PRICE –
Dec. 10, 2023 – Ross told her husband she’d gone out and used methamphetamine and crack cocaine, according to a Miami-Dade County medical examiner’s report. That morning, Ross’s husband found her dead of an overdose, slumped in a bed at their Airbnb, two pipes and a baggie with powder residue at her side.
Toxicology tests revealed she’d consumed cocaine and fentanyl — plus two other drugs belonging to a class of opioids known as nitazenes. One of those drugs is estimated to be 43 times more potent than fentanyl.
Ross’s mother, Cathy Sheely, had never heard of nitazenes. She doubts her daughter knew she was ingesting them. “We’ve all heard of fentanyl but didn’t know there were these other drugs out there killing people,” Sheely said.
The novel opioids can be many times more powerful than fentanyl and can complicate overdose revivals and addiction treatment. Even as illicit fentanyl manufactured in Mexico remains by far the chief catalyst for overdose deaths in the United States, the increasing presence of nitazenes adds another layer of health concerns as users often have no inkling they are consuming those opioids.
