Months ago, ASRA member and anesthesiologist Anita Gupta, MD, suspected overdose patients had received heroin spiked with a synthetic opioid additive because they were not responding to the antidote, naloxone, routinely used by emergency workers. Gupta suspected the drug was laced with W-18, a synthetic additive that acts like heroin but is 10,000 times stronger.
A recent surge in antidote-resistant overdose patients in Philadelphia seems to support her theory. Typically manufactured in China, W-18 is not yet regulated. It is believed to be responsible for at least 50 deaths nationwide.
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