A new street drug named “Super Mario” has appeared in New York, containing a synthetic opioid that is 100 times more potent than fentanyl.
The state’s health department issued a public health alert on Friday after testing samples from the “Super Mario” bags, which revealed a mixture of fentanyl, xylazine (a veterinary sedative), and trace amounts of heroin and carfentanil, a tranquilizing drug used for large mammals like elephants.
New York State Department of Health
Carfentanil, one of the components found in the “Super Mario” samples, is a synthetic opioid that the Drug Enforcement Administration states is 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl. The Department of Veterans Affairs mentions that just 2 milligrams of carfentanil can affect an average-sized elephant, while the same amount is lethal for approximately 50 humans, in contrast to the potentially lethal dose of fentanyl.
