Death drop’s net fix: Powerful opiate that killed Prince available on darkweb

A PRESCRIPTION drug 100 times more potent than heroin and responsible for thousands of deaths in the US, including pop star Prince, is now being sold to Australians on the darkweb.

Pop singer Prince pictured with his then-wife Manuela Testolini in 2004. Prince died of a fentanyl overdose at his Paisley Park estate in 2016. Picture: Getty Images

• Fentanyl feared to be behind dozens of NSW deaths
• Horror of drugs amplified when mixed with alcohol

A PRESCRIPTION drug 100 times more powerful than heroin and responsible for thousands of deaths in the US, including pop star Prince, is now being sold to Australians on the darkweb.

Screenshots from the darkweb, a sinister illicit online marketplace, obtained by The Daily Telegraph reveal there are hundreds of sellers offering to ship the prescription drug fentanyl to Australia, with new data showing local customers now ­account for about 72,000 darknet drug sales each year.

And data also showed prescription medications are the second-most popular drug sold, accounting for about 1300 of 6200 monthly darknet drug sales in Australia.

University of Macquarie senior lecturer in criminology Dr James Martin, who compiled the data, said Australia was now a leading country in the darknet drugs trade, with more online drug sellers per capita than any other nation except the Netherlands.

With the street name “death drop”, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is prescribed as pain relief for cancer patients and often comes in the form of gel patches.

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In one case, an Australian seller was offering 100 patches for $500.

Dr Martin said authorities were playing “whack-a-mole” trying to shut down sites and that there were more sales than when notorious site Silk Road was still operating.

However, NSW Drug Squad commander detective superintendent Tony Cooke said recent arrests of darknet sellers proved “no one was anonymous anymore”.

He said the NSW Police were working with federal authorities to crack down on any fentanyl being illegally sold in the state.

The family of Gold Coast trainer Michael Clayton will him to wake up. He never regained consciousness. Picture: Gold Coast Bulletin.

Gold Coast personal trainer Michael Clayton died a month after using a fentanyl patch to treat muscle soreness in 2015. Picture: Facebook

He also warned that users should not assume fentanyl was safe simply because it could be legally prescribed.

“(Fentanyl is) extraordinarily dangerous and every bit as dangerous as smoking ice,” he said.

Australian Border Force assistant commissioner of strategic order command Rod O’Donnell said officers had met with colleagues from the US, Canada, New Zealand and the UK to share information on stopping fentanyl sales.

The deadly drug is easily picked up online.

“Fentanyl is a deadly drug, and the Australian Border Force is doing everything in our power to stop it from making its way into the hands of Australian users,” he said.

Meanwhile, Canadian senator Vernon White, who will soon visit Australia to meet with government and police authorities, warned Australian authorities should act now to stop an epidemic ­similar to Canada’s crisis where opioid-related deaths had risen by up to 700 per cent.

“There’s much to be learned from the tragedy in the US and Canada. They were slow to take the threat seriously; local authorities raised concerns but national authorities ignored the countrywide impact fentanyl would ultimately have,” Mr White said.

Pop singer Prince pictured with his then-wife Manuela Testolini in 2004. Prince died of a fentanyl overdose at his Paisley Park estate in 2016. Picture: Getty Images

Mr White, a former police commissioner, said Australia should also be concerned about dealers lacing other drugs with fentanyl.

He also noted that Australia’s proximity to China, where most of the supply comes from, “almost guaranteed” a fentanyl problem.

The death of music legend Prince from an accidental overdose of fentanyl at his Paisley Park mansion thrust the drug into the spotlight in the US last year. It’s thought that the pop star, whose real name was Prince Rogers Nelson, developed an addiction due to severe hip pain before his death in April, 2016.

A NSW Health spokeswoman said the department provided statewide access to Naloxone, an opioid blocker, and confirmed NSW Health was evaluating a program that would give ­addicts access to “take home” Naloxone packages.

A spokeswoman from residential rehabilitation centre Odyssey House said while ­admissions for heroin addiction had declined this year, admissions for prescription opioid addiction were stable.