Iso, Fentanyl’s Scarier Cousin, Makes An Appearance In Palm Beach County

It is hard to imagine a scarier drug than fentanyl.  In a medical setting, it is safe, because the doses are tiny, and doctors and nurses carefully monitor patients who are receiving fentanyl so that they can reverse its effects if a patient begins to show signs of respiratory depression.  On the street, though, therapeutic drugs become dangerous, and this is even more the case with fentanyl than it was with the street drugs of the 80s, when elementary school teachers led students in chants of, “Just say no!”  There are plenty of dangerous drugs out there, but fentanyl’s low cost and widespread availability on the illegal market mean that anything that looks like cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA, a prescription pill, or even cannabis might contain a lethal dose of fentanyl.  There are other synthetic opioids out there that are stronger than fentanyl, some of them much stronger, but they are not nearly as widespread as fentanyl in the illegal drug supply.  One of them has recently been detected in drug mixtures confiscated in Palm Beach County.  If you are being accused of possession of synthetic opioids, contact a West Palm Beach drug offenses lawyer.

The Last Thing the Opioid Epidemic Needs Is a Reboot

Iso, also known by its chemical names N-desethylisotonitazene or norisotonitazene, is a synthetic opioid 800 times as strong as morphine, which means that its potency is eight times as strong as fentanyl.  It is one of several synthetic opioids, collectively known as nitazenes because of their chemical names, that can kill with a dose so small it is barely visible to the naked eye.

Iso was first synthesized decades ago; its manufacturers were trying to create something like fentanyl, an opioid strong enough to produce pain relief and anesthesia in tiny doses, but the product was so powerful that it was too dangerous for clinical use, so it never received FDA approval.  Until recently, it was not prevalent in the illegal drug supply; a drug that actually exists and which is eight times as strong as fentanyl was something for scientists to ponder, like the fact that some planets are bigger than Jupiter, but they orbit around stars other than the sun.

Law enforcement has confiscated iso in exactly two places in the United States, namely the Philadelphia area and Palm Beach County.  Two years ago, a drug bust in Riviera Beach yielded a stash of iso, and then it turned up earlier this summer at a drug bust in West Palm Beach.  Because of its similarity to other mega-opioids, the law treats iso as a Schedule I controlled substance, although it is not currently listed on any of the drug schedules.  The good news is that, since iso is an opioid, it is possible to reverse an overdose by administering naloxone.

Contact a West Palm Beach Criminal Defense Lawyer Today

Attorney William Wallshein has more than 40 years of experience, including five years as a prosecutor in Palm Beach County.  Contact William Wallshein P.A. in West Palm Beach, Florida to discuss your case.

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