Elephant Tranquilizer in Heroin Hits Home in Virginia

FAIRFAX STATION, VA — A recent wave of overdose deaths involving the powerful synthetic opioid carfentanil, which is an elephant tranqualizer hundreds of times more powerful than heroin, are painful reminders to a Fairfax Station family whose adopted daughter died last summer after an overdose from heroin laced with the drug.

The person who sold her the heroin pleaded guilty Monday on charges he sold her the drug. Kristina Lutz, 21, was found dead on a bathroom floor by her mother in late August. Last week, Maryland health officials issued a warning after the drug cause three overdose deaths in the state, including two in Anne Arundel County.

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In September, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency issued a warning about carfentanil, which is 10,000 times deadlier than morphine and 100 times deadlier than fentanyl, which is 50 times deadlier than heroin. Improper handling of carfentanil, as well as fentanyl and other fentanyl-related compounds, has deadly consequences, federal authorities said.

“Carfentanil is surfacing in more and more communities,” DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg said in a news release. “We see it on the streets, often disguised as heroin. It is crazy dangerous.”

Lutz's parents told the Washington Post she suffered from anxiety and depression while growing up but seemed to be fine before a setback caused, her parents believe, by the death of her boss at a dog-boarding center died of cancer.

Here's what the Virginia Department of Health has to say about the myriad overdoses and the "alarming trends" in the state.

• Emergency department visits for heroin overdose for January-September 2016 increased 89% compared to the same nine month period in 2015.
• The total number of fatal drug overdoses in Virginia during the first half of 2016 has increased 35% when compared to the same time period in 2015.
• Fatal drug overdoses became the number one method of unnatural death in 2013.
• The rate of reported cases of Hepatitis C (HCV) increased 28% between 2010 and 2015, with the primary risk factor being injection drug use.

Improper handling of Carfentanil can have dangerous, even deadly, consequences. As the product can be absorbed through the skin or airborne powder accidentally inhaled this product and other fentanyl-related compounds present a danger to first responders and other individuals who are exposed.

For more information and help for the addicted or their loved ones, click here.

Image of heroin powder from the Drug Enforcement Administration