On Friday evening, CTV News Canada reported that the Winnipeg police were warning the public that a drug being called “drop dead” and another drug known as “grey death” are just as deadly as they sound.
Grey death is a deadly combination of fentanyl, cocaine and quite often, the synthetic opioid U-47700. Believe it or not, but people can buy U-47700 online, where it is touted as being legal in many states in the U.S.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) placed U-47700 into Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act, effective November 14, 2016. However, in Canada, U-47700 is not listed in the country’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, an omission that needs to be changed immediately.
A new fentanyl analog on the streets in Georgia
In Georgia today, a local news site is confirming that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) has preliminarily identified the unknown substances in the drugs that caused dozens of overdoses and at least four deaths on Tuesday. The GBI lab says the drug contained a mixture of two synthetic opioids consistent with “a new fentanyl analog.”
Again, Georgia health officials are issuing a warning to the public about the dangerous new street drug, sold as a “yellow pill” said to be Percocet. “They’re out there selling poison to our community for nothing more than pure greed,” says Valdosta Police Chief Brian Childress. And he should be concerned because the rate of drug overdose related deaths nearly tripled in the last 20 years across the country.
Warnings are hitting ears that refuse to hear
We can’t say the warnings by health and law enforcement officials are falling on deaf ears because we all know that these potent and deadly drugs will kill you. How many drug users have lost buddies or friends from overdosing on this junk? And the people using these drugs are not stupid, either. So what is driving this drug epidemic?
I love reading the comments on some news stories because I get a sense of how the public is feeling. Well, believe it or not, while the public generally feels a heavy sadness at the loss of so many lives due to illicit drugs, and the majority do seem to want to help, a core group is angry.
They are angry at the people who say they are down and out, depressed and overwhelmed by everything in their lives, and use drugs to cope. And a part of me has to agree with them. Since when have we become so sorry that we can’t or won’t accept responsibility for our own actions? It seems it has become easier to blame society and life in general for our woes rather than do something constructive to make our lives better.
