DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has seized a dangerous new synthetic drug in Georgia.
The synthetic opioid, nicknamed “Pink,” has been linked to two overdose deaths in the state, and dozens more across the country.
“What you’re looking at now is two cases out of the metro Atlanta area,” said GBI spokesperson Nelly Miles.
“Pink” is also known as U47700, and the GBI has seized it 10 times. It comes in both pill and powder forms and is said to be eight times stronger than morphine.
It is made to resemble prescription drugs like OxyContin or Xanax.
“There’s no telling what you’re getting. It could be anything,” Miles said.
Channel 2’s Tom Regan learned U47700 was a research drug developed in the 1970s as an alternative to morphine. Illicit chemists overseas got the recipe to make it from online patent posts and scientific journals.
The state medical examiner has linked two overdose deaths in May and June to Pink, but since the cases are open, they cannot give many details about the deaths.
Nationwide, more than 50 overdose deaths have been linked to the drug, including the deaths of two 13-year-old friends in Utah.
Authorities said young people are buying the drug online and on the street.
Last week, the Drug Enforcement Administration banned U47700 and put it in the same category as hard drugs like meth, cocaine and heroin.
“It’s an imminent threat to the public and as a synthetic opioid some of the effects include constipation, sedation, also respiratory depression, which is not only harmful, it can be deadly,” Miles said.
The state of Georgia has not banned U47700, but it is expected to be banned when the legislatures convenes in January.