Georgia Officials Identify 2 Potent New Forms Of Fentanyl

ATLANTA, GA -- Georgia analysts continue to discover mysterious street drugs connected to the state's synthetic opioid crisis. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Lab has identified two new alterations of fentanyl, the agency announced late Tuesday.

The new alterations or analogues are acrylfentanyl and tetrahydrofuran fentanyl, the GBI said. Acrylfentany is so potent that naloxone, a drug that medical professionals use to reverse the effects of an overdose, has been seen in certain cases to have no effect.

Tetrahydrofuran fentanyl is another analogue, meaning that is virtually unknown in medical literature, making it extremely dangerous. (To get notified of more local news like this, click here to sign up for the Atlanta Patch. Or find your Atlanta-area town here. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

"Both of these synthetic opioids had not previously been identified by the GBI Crime Lab. They both can be absorbed through the skin and are considered highly dangerous," agency spokeswoman Nelly Miles said in a news release.

Law enforcement agencies around the nation are being warned by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) about the dangers of fentanyl compounds, which are being found in overdose cases around the nation. Canine units are in special danger as sniffing fentanyl can cause immediate death.

Earlier this week, the Marietta Police Department issued a public advisory on the dangers of fentanyl.

"Fentanyl alone is so potent that merely touching or inhaling tiny amounts, as small as a grain of salt, can cause a person to suffer an immediate drug overdose," Marietta police said in a news release Monday. As if fentanyl weren't enough, authorities said carfentanil -- at 10,000 times more potent than morphine -- is being seen on the streets today as well.

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Over a 48-hour period earlier this month, hospitals in several Georgia cities, including Centerville, Perry, Macon and Warner Robins, reported overdoses -- and fatalities related to street drugs taken under the pretense that they were prescription drugs.

Early reports indicate the culprit to be a street drug that the victims believed was Percocet.

The two new fentanyl analogues were submitted to the GBI by the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office in March. Legislation to outlaw acrylfentanyl was introduced in the General Assembly and passed in April, while no legislation covers tetrahydrofuran fentanyl in the state.

Because the mysterious drugs have no official history of human use, reactions in the body are unknown, federal officials have said.

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