Urgent warning over deadly opioid in white powder sold as cocaine

Health authorities have issued an urgent warning over a white powder being sold to people in Melbourne as cocaine, which has been laced with a deadly synthetic opioid 100 times more potent than heroin.

A white powder being sold to people in Melbourne as cocaine has been laced with a deadly opioid, health authorities have warned.

The Department of Health on Tuesday morning issued a public alert about the threat of locally sold cocaine that contained protonitazene, a synthetic drug 100 times more potent than heroin.

The warning comes after a string of recent incidents across Melbourne which resulted in “serious harms” to users who purchased the white powder believing it was cocaine.

“The product appears to produce strong adverse effects such as loss of consciousness, respiratory depression, and life-threatening hypoxia (insufficient oxygen for normal functioning),” the health alert read.

“Respiratory depression often appears more quickly with novel synthetic opioids (NSOs), increasing the risk of life-threatening overdose.”

Taking protonitazene with alcohol or other prescription drugs can increase the risk of an overdose.

Authorities warn protonitazene, a novel synthetic opioid, can produce deadly toxic effects in very small amounts.

“Cocaine and protonitazene are very different substances,” the alert said.

“Cocaine produces stimulant effects, whereas protonitazene produces sedative effects and may lead to opioid overdose.”

Taking protonitazene with alcohol or other prescription drugs such as Xanax or Valium can also increase the risk of an overdose.

Protonitazene has previously been linked by health authorities to overdoses in Victoria and interstate, including a fatality in South Australia.

Authorities there warned it was being mixed with other drugs, making it hard to identify where it had come from.

Michael Hodgkinson died inside a Broadmeadows home. Picture: Nine News

Police at a house on Bicknell Court in Broadmeadows where four people were found dead. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Investigators at the scene in Broadmeadows after four bodies were found. Picture: David Crosling

The warning comes one week after the Allan government announced it would begin a drug testing trial later this year.

Four people including a teen died in a suspected drug overdose at a Broadmeadows home last week.

Detectives from Victoria Police crime command are investigating the deaths.

The Herald Sun understands part of the inquiry will involve trying to trace who sold the drugs which caused the quadruple fatality.

There has been a surge in the importation of synthetic opioids from China in recent years.

One early theory was that the deaths were caused by fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid which has caused havoc in the US in the past decade.

The possibility of carbon monoxide was quickly eliminated because of the survival of a dog which had been in the house.