Photo: Dmitry Volochek / 123rf
Experts are urging people to get their drugs checked after four people were hospitalised in Wairarapa after consuming unknown substances.
On Saturday three people were hospitalised after taking an unknown white powder they believed was cocaine, and on Wednesday night, police were called to a Masterton home where a person was found a in critical condition after taking an unknown substance.
All four recovered after receiving naloxone, a drug that reverses an opioid overdose.
Police said the substances are not believed to be the same, but an investigation has been launched to determine what the substances are, if they are linked, where they came from, and how widely they have been distributed.
Antoni Nawrocki works at the Needle Exchange in Masterton and said he had heard cocaine laced with fentanyl had been floating around the community in the last few months. He recently helped a man whose friend had brought him into the clinic because he was unwell after taking what he thought was cocaine.
"He was very sick... not feeling good at all," said Nawrocki. "He was sweating, his skin was grey-coloured, and he was slipping in and out of consciousness."
The man recovered after an injection of naloxone
Nawrocki strongly suspected it was laced with fentanyl, given the symptoms he had, and that he responded well to naloxone.
"It's very dangerous, obviously they're getting... the cocaine or something, and it must be a bit weak, so they're boosting it up with fentanyl.
"[Dealers] are not honest and they'll tell you anything... just to make a sale, and once you're gone they don't care."
Nawrocki urged people to get their drugs tested either at the clinic or with the free kits they provide.
New Zealand Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm told Checkpoint's Lisa Owen the Saturday overdoses were likely caused by a synthetic opioid "either adulterating cocaine, or indeed instead of cocaine".
Although what caused Wednesday's hospitalisation was unknown, she said these incidents followed a growing trend of increasingly potent illicit drugs appearing both within New Zealand and aboard.
"Our law, which is quite old now, over the course of time... incentivises the illicit market to try to evade law enforcement by doing things like making drugs very potent, which makes them small. Or coming up with new synthetic substances that mimic the effects of other drugs in order to evade law enforcement.
"So we have this increasing volatility and toxicity of our drug supply, which is concerning."
Helm said the most concerning of these drugs were nitazenes, a family of synthetic opioids more powerful than fentanyl.
"We have had nitazenes present in the community for over 18 months now... very potent opioids."
She said it was likely more than a dozen New Zealanders had died in recent years as a result of overdosing on nitazenes.
"They have been responsible for deaths worldwide, Europe, Australia, [and] every class of drug here... people [often] taking them quite unintentionally."
Both Nawrocki and Helm urged anyone planning to consume illicit drugs to have them tested free of charge at a nearby clinic or through the use of home testing strips.
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