New synthetic opioid may have arrived in Ohio

Isotonitazene, a new synthetic opioid, has been detected in the blood of people who died from overdoses in Illinois and Indiana, and Ohio officials are testing to see if it has made its way to Ohio (Source: “Is new designer opioid causing overdose deaths in Ohio?” Columbus Dispatch, May 18).

The drug, which was mixed with cocaine in the Indiana and Illinois overdoses, also was found during a drug raid late last year in Canada’s eastern seaboard, according to reports. The drug comes in a white or off-white powder form or pressed into counterfeit opioid pills.

Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco, the coroner in Hamilton County in Cincinnati, said she is aware of the relatively new drug and plans to get a standard test for it so that it can be added to toxicity screens for those who die from overdoses in the county.

Isotonitazene is not a fentanyl analog, the powerful synthetic opioid that has been plaguing Ohio and other parts of the United States during recent years.