‘Frankenstein of opioids’ which killed 18yo set to flood Melbourne

The father of a teenage tradie who died from an overdose has issued a warning about a deadly drug you’ve never heard of, and it’s on the rise in Australia.

The father of a tradie who died after taking a pill laced with a synthetic opioid has issued a harrowing warning as Australia braces for a wave of the deadly street drug.

Jetson Gordon, 18, died in 2022 after overdosing on what he thought was oxycodone he purchased on the dark web, unaware it was laced with a strong synthetic opioid called nitazene.

The drug, nicknamed the ‘Frankenstein’ of opioids, can be up to 500 times more potent than Heroin and 50 times stronger than fentanyl.

“It’s been a living hell, you lose your son,” his father John Gordon, from Melbourne, told 9News.

“It’s so preventable, just unfathomable.”

Jetson Gordon, 18, died in 2022 after taking a pill laced with nitazene. Picture: 9News

Jetson’s flatmate found him unresponsive in his room the morning after taking the pills.

The apprentice carpenter who was living out of home for this first time in Melbourne, had died from n-pyrrolidino etonitazene toxicity, two-and-a-half months after his 18th birthday.

Several days after his death, the teenager’s parents found a package from the UK in his bedroom containing 24 pills. Half a pill was also found in his bed.

The pills were stamped with an ‘M’, as some legally-produced oxycodone is.

Mr Gordon said action needs to be taken to prevent another tragedy from happening ever again.

“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else or any other family go through what we have had to go through.”

“It’s horrendous, I never planned on this, we don’t get to have grandchildren anymore.”

Nitazenes are a class of synthetic opioids which can be up to 500 times more potent than Heroin and 50 times stronger than fentanyl. Picture: Australian Border Force

“Extremely dangerous”

Nitazenes, which block pain signals in the brain and can suppress respiration, are typically sold as other substances such as cocaine, MDMA and ketamine and can come in a variety of forms including white, yellow powder, or crystalline solid.

“Nitazenes are extremely dangerous,” Professor Suzanne Nielsen, the Acting Director of the Monash Addiction Research Centre, told news.com.au earlier this year.

“We have seen this increasing frequency of detections and alerts, which does make us very nervous.”

Professor Nielsen said some people would be unaware they are taking nitazenes , as there is “really no way” to spot the drug by looking at the substance without testing.

“We’ve also seen falsified pharmaceutical tablets that contain these potent opioids. So it might actually just look like a pharmaceutical product, but it actually contains nitazene,” she warned.

“For people who don’t regularly take opioids, that don’t even know there’s an opioid in the drug that they’re taken, are extremely vulnerable to a fatal overdose.”

Nitazenes can come in a variety of forms including white, yellow powder, or crystalline solid. Picture: Joe Lamberti for The Washington Post/Getty

“Huge issue” in Victoria
Penington Institute chief executive John Ryan described the drugs as the “Frankenstein of opioids”, warning inaction could see Australia sleep walk into an “overdose catastrophe”.

“They’re made in the lab and they’re now out in the community actually killing people,” he told 9News.

“We are really failing to face up to this problem.”

Intelligence from the Australian Federal Police suggests the drugs are being manufactured in overseas factories in China and India before making its way to Australian shores through the mail.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton told the outlet the state is expecting to see a surge in overdose deaths.

“That’s a huge issue for us, I know the drugs task force is looking at that … our forensic area is looking at the intelligence coming in from that,” he said.

Nitazenes have so claimed the lives of 17 people in Victoria alone.

Overall, drug overdose deaths have almost doubled in Australia over the last 20 years.

In 2021, there were 2,231 drug-induced deaths, 75 per cent of which were unintentional, according to the Penington Institute.

Opioids are the most common drug in unintentional deaths, contributing to 45.7 per cent of drug-induced deaths.

Originally published as ‘Frankenstein of opioids’ which killed 18yo set to flood Melbourne