Varning för förgiftade Xanor och Oxycontin

Death linked to fake oxycodone tablets containing methoxyacetylfentanyl — Denmark, March 2018
bezugnehmend auf die Aussendung vom 9. Mai 2018 `Fake oxycodone tablets containing methoxyacetylfentanyl — Sweden, 2018´.

In particular, this update highlights that similar fake tablets have also been detected in Denmark and that a death has been linked to the use such tablet.
The case occurred in March 2018 and involved a man in his thirties . It was reported that the individual had taken one 'HEXAPHARM Oxycodone 80 mg' tablet, clonazepam, and some other benzodiazepines.

Analysis of the tablet found methoxyacetylfentanyl and no oxycodone. Exposure to methoxyacetylfentanyl was analytically confirmed from a post - mortem blood sample;

A seizure of 'HEXAPHARM Oxycodone 80 mg' tablets has been previously reported by Sweden. In 2018, Swedish Police made a seizure of two fake oxycodone tablets (‘OC 80’) that contained methoxyacetylfentanyl. The amount of methoxyacetylfentanyl present in the tablets was not reported. No other substances were detected in the tablets. Tablets were found in a blister pack labelled 'HEXAPHARM Oxycodone 80mg´. Currently available information indicates that those tablets were purchased on the darknet.

People using fake medicines containing fentanils are at a high risk of life - threatening poisoning from respiratory depression. Such fakes have caused severe and fatal poisoning, including mass poisonings, in the United States and Canada in the past few years.

The risk of poisoning may be especially high when fakes are sold as benzodiazepines (such as Xanax) as they may be used by non - opioid users who have no tolerance to opioids. Non - opioid users are unlikely to be aware of these risks nor to have access to harm reduction programmes, including access to the antidote naloxone.

The fentanils are a family of highly potent opioids. In the past two years there has been a large increase in the availability of these substances in Europe. They are sold as ‘legal’ replacements to established illicit opioids. In some cases, users will not be aware that they are using them, as they may also be sold as/in heroin and other illicit opioids, used to make fake medicines, or even sold as/in cocaine.

Methoxyacetylfentanyl was formally notified as a new psychoactive substance by Slovenia in December 2016. Following reports of deaths in Europe, the substance w as risk assessed by the EMCDDA in March 2018. So far, the substance has been detected in at least 12 countries in Europe and involved 13 deaths.