A new drug that is stronger than the high-risk narcotic fentanyl, has been circulating in Colorado and recently reportedly killed at least one person in Denver.
N-pyrrolidino Etonitazene, known by its street name “PYRO,” is a high-potency synthetic opioid with a molecular structure that resembles Etonitazene, a synthetic opioid classified as a controlled substance.
The new drug is reportedly 1,000 and 1,500 times stronger than morphine, while fentanyl is only around 100 times stronger than morphine, local news station KKCO reported on Thursday.
Here’s what the Sheriff’s Office said in the alert:
“A new synthetic opioid has been found in Colorado. The small light blue pills with dark blue flakes are marked with an ‘M’ on one side and ’30’ on the other. This opioid is known as PYRO. Laboratories have determined the pills are more potent than fentanyl. Please use caution if you encounter this opioid and notify law enforcement immediately.”
A spokesman for the Denver Police Department confirmed to Newsweek that it had found small quantities of the drug in Denver.
“Our narcotics investigators tell us anecdotally that minimal amounts of this synthetic opioid have been found in Denver thus far, however one recovery was related to an overdose death that is under investigation, so it’s certainly a concern for us,” the spokesman said.
Mesa County Sheriff’s Lt. Henry Stoffel warned the public that drugs would spread to nearby cities like Grand Junction, and out further.
“Within a month, it will make its way down the I-70 corridor,” Stoffel said.
More details of this report from The Daily Wire:
According to a public alert from the Center for Forensic Science Research & Education, PYRO has a chemical structure similar to another controlled substance called etonitazene, but different from other synthetic opioids like fentanyl. But unlike other similar drugs that first appeared in scientific literature in the 1950s, PYRO does not appear in any scientific literature or patents. The drug was first discovered by CFSRE’s NPS (Novel Psychoactive Substances) Discovery program in May 2021 after it was initially discovered in a toxicology report. The alert also confirmed that the drug is much stronger than fentanyl — according to recent pharmacological data, PYRO exhibits a similar potency level to etonitazene, which is about 20 times stronger than fentanyl.
The alert showed that PYRO was found in blood samples of eight postmortem toxicology reports in five states: Colorado, Florida, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. An April report from CFSRE, cited by Newsweek, said that PYRO was detected in 21 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. and Canada, including 17 deaths in nine states: Kentucky, West Virginia, Colorado, New Jersey, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Minnesota. But those deaths appeared to have the drug in low concentrations.
Dr. Judith Yates, a Birmingham, U.K.-based physician who analyses drug-related deaths, told KKCO that the drug is likely coming from China via the dark web. She told the BBC in June that the drug was likely a replacement for fentanyl.
“There is no way to tell what’s in a tablet that you’re getting either online or on the street,” Yates told the BBC at the time. Three men in Birmingham died from drug overdoses between October 2021 and January 2022 after taking PYRO. “These three cases have come out of the blue, we’ve never seen this chemical before in Birmingham,” Yates said.
Sources: TheDailyWire, Newsweek, KKCO, BBC
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