Category Archives: Opiods

May 25, 2018 Radio Commentary

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Kratom: Opioid or Supplement

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, May 25, 2018 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler

The Georgia General Assembly won’t reconvene until the second Monday of 2019, but legislators have plenty to do until then. While they run for reelection, most of them will be appointed to serve on any one of three dozen study committees they created this year.

Two separate committees will study in-state cultivation of marijuana – in-state growing to produce THC oil, and in-state growing to produce industrial hemp. Another bill, H.R. 1160, created a committee that will study Mitragyna speciosa, a.k.a. Kratom, which the Food and Drug Administration identifies as “a plant which grows naturally in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and New Guinea.”

After attributing 36 deaths to kratom, the FDA warns consumers not to use any product that’slabeled kratom or any supplement or dietary product that contains kratom or its psychoactive compounds. Kratom affects the same opioid brain receptors as morphine and appears to have properties that expose users to possible addiction, substance abuse, and dependence on kratom. Continue reading →

June 9, 2017 Radio Commentary

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“Gray Death” Opioid Confirmed in Georgia

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, June 9, 2017 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler

When a Georgia police officer caught up to the pick-up truck, it had stopped and the suspect was unconscious in the seat.  Immediately, the officer noticed a gray substance on the floor of the vehicle and called for help, knowing his response meant life or death for the suspect.

The officer recognized the substance as the same chemical that killed its first-known Georgia victim on February 10th this year.  Not only is it new in Georgia, it’s unlike any other natural or synthetic combination of drugs law enforcement has encountered in this state.

When the GBI identified it as highly toxic and deadly, a lab technician named it “gray death,” the term now used all over the country as an accurate description of the concoction – the latest and most deadly street drug available to addicts.  It may be in powder form or in a chunk, with ingredients that may vary from dose to dose.  Expert s described it this way: “The gray material was found to contain a toxic cocktail of opiate drugs.  The ingredients vary, but often contain heroin, two kinds of fentanyl, furanyl fentanyl, and U-47700, all mixed together in the same powder.  The solid material has the appearance of gray concrete mixing powder, with texture variations from light/powdery to chunky/rock-like.”  Continue reading →

May 2017 Newsletter

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“Gray Death” Opioid Confirmed in Georgia

“If you put this in your body you will die, no questions asked. This is something that I want to be very clear about … it’s not a scare tactic … it’s not a shock factor. …if you put this drug into your body you will die, it will kill you.
There’s a reason why it’s been nicknamed Grey Death. It is deadly.”
– Shelby County Alabama Drug Enforcement Task Force Commander Clay Hammac

Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Russ Baer says gray death is a combination of heroin, fentanyl and other fentanyl-class substances, such as Carfentanil, a tranquilizer for use on elephants and other large animals. Atlanta law enforcement coined the term “gray gravel heroin” in 2012. Recently, the GBI confirmed Georgia’s first gray death victim as a 24-year-old female in Brookhaven who died February 10, 2017, and described the opioid as follows:

“The gray material was found to contain a toxic cocktail of opiate drugs. The ingredients vary, but often contain heroin, fentanyl, furanyl fentanyl, and U-47700, mixed together in the same powder. The solid material has the appearance of gray concrete mixing powder, with texture variations from light/powdery to chunky/rock-like.”

Reportedly, gray death can be absorbed through the skin, is 10,000 times more potent than morphine, 100 times more powerful than fentanyl, and includes Carfentanil, the elephant tranquilizer described as “crazy dangerous” by a Colorado DEA spokesman. The GBI lab first identified it as gray death in March and, so far, has found it in about 50 different drug seizures.

Three New Laws to Fight Opioid Epidemic in Georgia

  • To read about the new laws the rest of this newsletter in PDF format, please click here.