Police warning over drug so dangerous it can kill in one breath

Police in the US have issued a warning over a drug so strong that simply inhaling it has caused officers to collapse.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid pain reliever around 50-100 times more potent than morphine which is typically used to relieve advanced cancer pain.

Recent cases of misuse – which have resulted in death in the US – have mostly been linked to an illegally made version of the drug which is often combined with heroin and/or cocaine for maximum effect.

US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein said in a speech last week that Americans were dying of drug overdoses in record numbers, adding that preliminary data suggests a 20 per cent year-on-year increase in drug overdose deaths in 2016.

Speaking at the DEA Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, Rosenstein said fentanyl was “especially dangerous”.

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He said: “Fentanyl is 30 to 50 times more deadly than heroin. Just 2 milligrams – the equivalent of a few grains of table salt – an amount that can fit on the tip of your finger – can be lethal.”

The drug’s potency has placed officers at risk of death, he said: “Inhaling just a few airborne particles could be fatal. Our police officers and first responders face this danger every day.”

An officer collapsed and “nearly died” last month after simply brushing some fentanyl off his shirt; he needed four doses of opiate antidote Narcan to reverse the effects.

Data compiled by the New York Times suggests that overdose deaths in the US probably exceeded 59,000 in 2016 – the largest annual increase in American history.

Mr Rosenstein said that the spread of fentanyl means that “any encounter a law enforcement officer has with an unidentified white powder could be fatal”.