Fentanyl: Drug which killed Prince, and used by thousands of Australians, could be behind dozens of deaths across NSW

EXPERTS fear a prescription drug which killed music legend Prince could be behind overdoses that have killed dozens across the state in the past few months.

Fentanyl ... this is the drug that experts fear led to dozens of overdoses in Sydney.

• DEADLY HEROIN KILLS 13 IN JUST FOUR WEEKS
• PRINCE DIED IN FENTANYL O.D ‘MANY TIMES’

EXPERTS fear a prescription drug used by thousands of Australians to ease pain could be behind overdoses that have killed dozens of people in the past few months.

Fentanyl, which killed music ­legend Prince, is 100 times stronger than morphine and is now popular with illicit drug users who mix it with heroin or take it on its own.

Police are investigating the source of heroin that killed 13 people across Sydney last month, with early toxicology reports indicating all users died from heroin and/or methadone.

A woman injects heroin in a Kings Cross doorway yesterday / Picture: Dylan Robinson

Fentanyl is a standard opiate in intensive care that when used illicitly slowed the ­respiratory system until the brain was starved of oxygen.

Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation president Alex Wodak believes Fentanyl may have been a factor, with all the users found in circumstances that suggest they died soon after shooting up. “That suggests the death has come on quickly and doesn’t prove it’s Fentanyl but it makes me more suspicious,” he said.

Dr Wodak said Fentanyl was a standard opiate in intensive care that when used illicitly slowed the ­respiratory system until the brain was starved of oxygen.

“If people are using alone or ­combining with other sedative drugs it’s asking for trouble,” he said. “I think that’s what we are seeing.”

Fifty-one people overdosed on Fentanyl in NSW in 2013, two-thirds of them in regional areas. More than 70 per cent of the 564 overdose deaths nationwide in 2012 were ­attributed to prescription painkillers, including oxycodone and Fentanyl, while 30 per cent were heroin.

Similar in appearance to nicotine patches and selling for less than $10, patches of the drug are cut into small pieces and sold to users for $60 a quarter.

Music legend Prince was killed by Fentanyl.

Kings Cross heroin addict “Lynne” said she wasn’t interested in Fentanyl until Prince’s death.

“Prince isn’t stupid, so if he used it, it mustn’t be garbage,” she said.

“You can buy it on the street or you can doctor shop, which is easy.”

Acting NSW Drug Squad commander Detective Chief Inspector Michael Cook said: “It’s been on our radar for some time. Fentanyl is an incredibly potent and lethal drug when used illicitly.”

Wagga Wagga man Shayne Barker died from a Fentanyl overdose in 2013. An inquest heard he used the painkiller regularly, extracting it from patches and injecting it into his ankle.

Mr Barker’s brother Leslie said it was easy for his brother to get scripts from doctors, saying he would “dress like he was going to court”.

“He had three doctors he could see. I’m still dumbfounded on why a doctor would be so easily fooled — just one question and my brother would have been left empty-handed,” he said.

Michael Clayton died last year after using Fentalyn

Gold Coast personal trainer Michael Clayton, 21, died last year after using a Fentanyl patch to treat pain from a gym workout.

Redfern’s Odyssey House spokesman James Pitts said a “bumper crop” in Afghanistan had increased the distribution of heroin around the world.

“We had seen a significant increase in the number of people who nominated heroin as their primary drug of choice, that was two and half times of the previous year,” he said.

“People who use heroin use other opiates, in the last three years. Fentanyl has become a drug of choice, particularly in region areas it has slowly crept into metro areas. People on heroin are looking to top up to increase their high, there is a possibility that people have used Fentanyl as well.”

National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre head Professor Michael Farrell said taking Fentanyl illicitly could be deadly.

“It’s very difficult for people to know just how much they are extracting from the patch and injecting. It is already a very powerful opioid and people are injecting it without being able to control how much,” he said.

“As with all opioids it is quite common for users to use Fentanyl along with other substances such as alcohol and benzodiazepines which are also respiratory depressants, which interfere with the ability to breath. therefore increasing the risk of death

“We have no evidence to support the presence of any Fentanyl laced heroin in Australia. But it is a common cause of overdose deaths in the US.”

Additional reporting Mark Morri and Ashleigh Gleeson