Rhode Island Officials Warn of New Drug on the Streets and Corresponding Overdose Deaths

A dangerous and illegal new opiate drug, which has been responsible for 14 overdose deaths in Rhode Island alone this year, is now being sold in pill form and packaged to look like another popular opioid drug, Oxycodone, according to Rhode Island health officials.

Acetyl fentanyl, the man-made illegal designer drug, is not sold with a prescription like Oxycodone, and is instead strictly a street drug.

Investigators say that the 14 overdose deaths earlier this year were from users who injected the drug like heroin. However, health officials say that they have seen the same dangerous drug in pill form.

The opioid drug looks like Oxycodone, a popular but strictly-regulated prescription narcotic painkiller, which is responsible for its own high addiction and overdose rate. The Rhode Island Department of Health says a new batch of pills found in the state and released into clubs is actually the much stronger designer narcotic acetyl fentanyl.

Providence nightclub The Roxy posted an official warning on its Facebook page over the weekend, spreading the word about the dangers of the new designer drug. Acetyl fentanyl is up to 50 times more powerful than heroin, according to health officials, but in powder form it can look exactly the same as heroin, so users unintentionally overdose with the same size hit.

Earlier in the year, 14 people overdosed and died from the designer drug, after injecting it, which led officials to believe that the victims thought they were injecting heroin.

The new pill form of the drug has not yet been linked to any overdose deaths. However, authorities are concerned that people illicitly buying Oxycodone pills on the street will actually end up with acetyl fentanyl.

Last year, more than 180 people in Rhode Island alone died from unintentional overdoses, and prescription drugs were responsible for a whopping 119 of those deaths.

“With an average of four people dying per week due to drug overdoses, we need the people of Rhode Island to know what dangers are out on our streets,” Dr. Michael Fine, director of the state Department of Health, said in a statement on Saturday. “People who may think they are buying oxycodone on the street could actually be buying something that we know has already taken the lives of 14 people in Rhode Island.”

Rhode Island ranks number 13 in the nation for overdose deaths, down from 7^th place last year. The state still has the highest ranking of overdose deaths in New England. South Carolina, in contrast, ranks 16^th in the nation for drug overdose deaths.

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