They have fueled a spate of overdose deaths in Ohio and across the country. In 2020, for example, over 56,000 deaths occurred because of these drugs, which is more than any other type of opioid. Because gray death is a combination of at least three powerful opioids, side effects are potent and take effect immediately, sometimes even from touching the drug. Sometimes, the overdoses are caused by prescription pain medications illicitly combined with other substances. In Ohio, a state hard-hit by the opioid epidemic, a record 3,050 people died of drug overdoses last year.
Get Treatment For Opioid Addiction in Ohio
Elon Musk posted on X that he has a prescription for ketamine “for when my brain chemistry sometimes goes super negative.” Sharon Osbourne told People she underwent three months of ketamine therapy. “Saturday Night Live” alumnus Pete Davidson revealed during a comedy set in Atlantic City that he had taken ketamine daily for four years before he checked himself into rehab. A typical new combination he’s seeing is heroin combined with 3-methylfentanyl, a more powerful version of fentanyl, said Webber, 25. The mixing poses a deadly risk to users and also challenges investigators trying to figure out what they’re dealing with this time around, said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, a Republican. “Grey death is one of the scariest combinations that I have ever seen in nearly 20 years of forensic chemistry drug analysis,” Deneen Kilcrease, manager of the chemistry section at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said. COLUMBUS, Ohio — It’s being called “grey death” — a new and dangerous opioid combo that underscores the ever-changing nature of the U.S. addictions epidemic.
- Treatment options are available, so you don’t need to navigate the road to recovery alone.
- Most people with addictions buy heroin believing that’s what they’re getting, overdose survivor Richie Webber said.
- Grey death has a much higher potency than heroin, according to a bulletin issued by the Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.
- But that’s often not the case, as he found out in 2014 when he overdosed on fentanyl-laced heroin.
Where Cases of Gray Death are Cropping Up
About 9,500 of those deaths involved fentanyl, at least 30 times stronger than heroin, and other “synthetic” opioids cooked up in a lab and imported from China, up from almost none five years ago. At least eight samples of gray death have been seized by law enforcement in Ohio, namely in the Cincinnati area. Given the appearance of the new drug, overdose deaths may spike in Ohio again. Gray death is a relatively new street opioid that has only appeared in certain places in the United States, like Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
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“Gray death is one of the scariest combinations that I have ever seen in nearly 20 years of forensic chemistry drug analysis,” said Deneen Kilcrease, manager of the chemistry section at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Despite its known dangers, some opioid addicts may be enticed by gray death’s ability to produce a high unlike other drugs out there.6 Unfortunately, this high can rapidly turn deadly. Gray death is extremely dangerous, even in a very small dose, if formulated with multiple potent opioids. A user typically will not know what is contained in the mix when they use it, and the product can be fatal. Methamphetamine was a contributing factor in 29% of the 2023 drug deaths, while cocaine was a factor in 24% of them, Cook said.
Forms Of Abuse
Fentanyl continues to be the primary killer, Cook said, as the drug was determined to be a contributing factor in 83% of last year’s fatal overdoses. Fentanyl was at play in 84% of the drug deaths in 2022, according to Cook’s data. According to the AP News report cited earlier, cases of gray death overdoses have been recorded in Georgia, namely the Atlanta area. At least 50 cases were reported, each with different batches of gray death that had slightly different chemical compositions. In 2021, Ohio State Troopers confiscated approximately $30,000 in drugs, including batches of the synthetic opioid mixture, in a county just south of Columbus.
Side Effects Of Gray Death
The delivery method often depends on how long a person has had an addiction to opioids. For example, someone who is just starting out may ingest the drug orally or inhale it. In the later stages of their disease, injecting it into the veins becomes more common. The amount of seeds that happen to be available can cause limitations on the amount of opioid-based medications that can be produced. Because of this, researchers developed synthetic opioids that are made from the chemical precursors of the plant.
General Dangers Of Opioid Addiction
In fact, there was recently a news story about an Ohio law enforcement officer who overdosed on the substance when he tried to brush the powder off his uniform. The main reason he survived was because several emergency medical technicians were already at the site and were able to give him Narcan injections until he could get to the hospital. It is impossible to predict what substances gray death will contain and how potent it will be. Other forms of heroin may be contaminated by this drug as it is being transported. All opiate-addicted individuals need to be aware of the risks they are taking when they use this or any form of heroin.
Gray death ingredients and their concentrations are unknown to users, and they can be particularly lethal, Kilcrease said. And because these strong drugs can be absorbed through the skin, simply touching the powder puts users at risk. Gray death addiction treatment 9 liquor storage ideas for small spaces would include medications used to treat opioid abuse. Drugs like naloxone, also called Narcan, have been used to save the lives of those who have overdosed on opioids. Reversing the impact of gray death takes 5 to 10 doses of Narcan to feel its effects.
Grey death ingredients and their concentrations are unknown to users, making it particularly lethal, Kilcrease said. In addition, because these strong drugs can be absorbed through the skin, simply touching the powder puts users at risk, she said. crack addiction The above drugs are already quite dangerous, even more so when combined. Quoting a DEA press release, “Since this drug is created in illegal underground labs, users can’t possibly know exactly what they are ingesting or how potent it is.
Reports of gray death overdoses first began to surface in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Pennsylvania and Ohio in 2017. A report from that same year stated that the Ohio attorney general’s office gathered and analyzed samples from around the state that matched the ingredients found in the mixture. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, about 128 people die from an overdose on opioids every day in the United States. The vast majority of the overdoses are caused by opiate-addicted individuals consuming high doses of synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, carfentanil, and heroin.
Drug Enforcement Agency says is 80 to 100 times stronger than heroin. A local police department in Louisiana is warning people about a potentially lethal drug combination called “gray death” — a substance so powerful, they warn you shouldn’t even touch it. St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana is alerting the public about the drug in wake of recent arrests.
We’re taking a closer look at how ketamine is being used to treat depression, the path the drug took from general anesthetic to taboo rave drug to an off-label psychiatric medication, and the potential pitfalls. Perry was found dead in a hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home Oct. 28 with trace amounts of ketamine in his stomach and a much higher concentration in his bloodstream. County Department of Medical Examiner determined the actor died from acute effects of ketamine. Ketamine is generally safe when taken under medical supervision, experts said, but the Perry case also underscores potential risks. “These kinds of en vogue, money-making drugs have just exploded with certain strata of society,” said Dr. David Goodman-Meza, an addiction-medicine and infectious-disease specialist at UCLA. When Los Angeles County medical examiners worked last year to determine how Matthew Perry died, they discovered something startling.
His autopsy noted that Perry had no other drugs in his system, and while he had been open about his struggles with addiction in the past, he had been 19 months sober at the time of his death. There was no evidence of illicit drugs or paraphernalia at his home. The drug is offered off-label to treat depression and other mental health disorders. The Food and Drug Administration has not approved its use for those treatments, and while prescribing drugs for off-label use is not uncommon, some medical experts worry that the risks are being ignored.
Fortunately, the same tools and methods used to reverse a heroin overdose can be used to reverse a gray death overdose, but the process is more challenging. A gray death overdose might require multiple doses of naloxone (Narcan). Some people will need up to 10 doses to recover,6 which can be a huge problem, since family members or first responders may not have this amount on hand. The main victims of the rise of gray death are those addicted to opioids.
“You can get addicted to ketamine, and there are people that use large amounts a day,” he said. Cases like Perry’s, where he used ketamine at home and then died, would certainly draw scrutiny, Bodner said. But the fact that ketamine has therapeutic usage and is being prescribed — even off-label — makes it difficult to police, Bodner said. Its off-label use also has placed ketamine in a medical and legal gray area, Alexander said. The Drug Enforcement Administration in 2020 allowed doctors to prescribe controlled medications online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Law enforcement officials believe that lower prices on the streets have steered users away from prescription painkillers and towards heroin, which is often cut with fentanyl and other fillers. Oftentimes, users don’t have a way of telling if the heroin they’ve purchased what are whippits and how can they be abused is pure or if it’s laced with something else before using it. That’s how gray death has inadvertently made its way into some drug users’ lives. Some ingredients found in gray death, like heroin and fentanyl, have individually contributed to America’s opioid crisis.
“There have been several overdoses and overdose-related deaths across Georgia and Alabama linked to grey death,” a report from the Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area said. Toxicology and autopsy results are still pending for the Georgia cases, Kilcrease said. If you or a loved one is struggling with opioid addiction or are using gray death, The Recovery Village Columbus is here to help. To learn more about available treatment options, contact us today. Law enforcement officials have to be especially careful because they routinely check vehicles, bags, and homes where gray death might be. This can put them at risk of accidentally overdosing on it if they don’t have several vials of Narcan with them to reverse its effects.
