A criminologist says authorities must increase supply of a drug used to reverse the effects of opioids, after a dozen people were hospitalised by fentanyl overdoses over the weekend.
Photo: Drew Angerer / Getty Images / AFP
The opioid fentanyl has been circulating in New Zealand after previously wreaking havoc in the United States. Today, police said ESR testing confirmed suspicions fentanyl had been consumed by people in Wairarapa.
A dozen people from Wairarapa aged between 31 and 71 were hospitalised due to suspected fentanyl overdoses over the weekend.
Police said while ESR results were preliminary, it was important to establish what they were dealing with.
National drug intelligence manager Blair Macdonald said the results showed the substance was mixed with the diuretic medicine mannitol or a substance like sugar.
Further tests on samples are ongoing.
Victoria University criminologist Dr Fiona Hutton said the country's supply of Naloxone, a drug used to reverse the effects of opioids, was low and fixing this was crucial.
The country needed to step up before there were any tragedies involving fentanyl and become better prepared for dealing with the illegal use of the drug use, she said.
Hutton said addiction services had been pressing the government on the issue for a while.
She said the age of the hospitalised users was an important detail, as illicit drug users were just regular people.
Most people based their idea of drug users on stereotypes, and vilifying them was counter-productive, she said.
Dr Hutton encouraged drug users to test their substances first and said information on how to do so was available online.
Fentanyl was the cause of more than 100,000 deaths in the US last year.