'Super-Strong' Drug Mixed With Heroin Has PA Cops On High Alert

What's described as a "super-strong" drug that's mixed with heroin has Pennsylvania and New Jersey law enforcement on high alert - just as some agencies in the state report that overdose cases have spiked this year.

Police departments and prosecutors in the Philadelphia region, Camden and Monmouth County, among others, are on high alert for the drug after the Drug Enforcement Administration reported that W-18 could have entered area’s heroin market.

Indeed, nine pounds of the painkiller were seized by Canadian authorities in April, prompting an Edmonton doctor to tweet this: "To put in perspective, this is enough to kill every man, woman and child in Alberta about 45 times over."

Some New Jersey authorities say they have not seen the drug in the state so far, which apparently is 10,000 times more powerful than Morphine - so powerful that law enforcement can't assure that Narcan will reverse a W-18 overdose.

But Charles Webster said the drug, which may be undetectable to current standard opioid testing, could still be in New Jersey.

Just as medical professionals have surmised that W-18 could be spiking overdoses in the United States, Webster said Monmouth County has had a 50 percent spike in Narcan saves this year over 2015.

Chemicals such as fentanyl are also mixed with heroin, he noted, which could also be contributing to the problem. But Webster said the Monmouth County, N.J. Prosecutor's Office is on alert for W-18.

"Just because we haven't seen it [W-18] doesn't mean it's not out here," said Charles Webster, saying the number of Narcan saves in Monmouth County has increased from 87 at this point last year to about 130 in 2016.

Al Della Fave, a spokesman for the Ocean County, N.J. Prosecutor's Office, also said his agency hasn't seen it although there's "nothing law enforcement can do to prevent its spread." He said the prosecutor's office is usually notified when a new drug enters the market.

W-18 is likely manufactured in underground Chinese laboratories, and the Drug Enforcement Administration is telling local police departments, and the drug remains unregulated, according to NBC Philadelphia.

Physicians, citing a recent Drug Enforcement Administration bulletin warning, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that they believe the synthetic opioid is so powerful that it can cause death in microscopic doses. The DEA reported there has been at least one confirmed death in Illinois.

Users in drug forums on Reddit and elsewhere have been telling people to stay away from the drug, which one even calling it "chemical warfare" on addicts.

"If that's true, and who really knows if it is, it would impossible to use recreationally," wrote a user named "spinderella69."

"No scale would be accurate enough to dose it. The dosing amount would be so small. Even handling could be dangerous if your skin were to absorb it."

Narcotics officers in Philadelphia and surrounding towns, like Bensalem and Camden, told NBC they are aware of W-18, although they haven't found any hard evidence of its existence in the local black market yet.

"The past few months, we've been aware of it," Philadelphia police narcotics Chief Daniel MacDonald told NBCPhiladelphia. "We haven’t actually come across it in and of itself. We’ve heard of people blending it with heroin to bolster it. The police lab is aware of it."

Some pills containing it were found in a stache of fentanyl in Alberta, Canada. In December 2015, four kilograms of a then-unknown chemical powder was seized as part of a fentanyl investigation in Edmonton, according to an Alberta law enforcement press release.

The chemical powder was submitted to Health Canada’s Drug Analysis Service who confirmed the substance was W-18 on April 19.

Webster noted that the drug has been around for decades. The patent dates to 1984, according to Forbes, while it was also among 35 chemicals patented by pharmaceutical chemists that appeared to be painkillers in tests on mice.