‘More toxic’: Potent sedative triggering unexpected spike in overdoses, Mass. hospital warns

A potent new sedative has made its way into the street-level supply of fentanyl and other drugs in central Massachusetts, triggering an unexpected spike in opioid overdoses in Worcester, health officials are warning.

Recent blood tests involving patients at UMass Memorial Health have shown the presence of medetomidine, a veterinary anesthetic drug not seen before in overdose cases in Massachusetts, according to a spokesperson for the healthcare system.

The spokesperson described medetomidine as “more toxic, more dangerous, and more difficult to treat,” while also noting that it has already caused a high number of overdoses in other states and Canada.

“We have a poisoned drug supply,” said Dr. Melinde Castiel, Worcester’s Commissioner of Health and Human Services. “We continue to have overdoses, we continue to have overdose mortality.”

Medetomidine, an undetectable fentanyl adulterant that extends the sedating and analgesic effects of opioids, slows the human heart rate to dangerous levels. It’s also much more powerful than xylazine, a chemical also found in local blood tests but previously known to the area.

Worcester Paramedic Brian Rettger first noticed something different with overdose patients about two weeks ago.

“We saw seemingly an increase in overdoses in terms of rate,” he said. “And the way they were presenting was different as well.”

Doctors have also warned that the effects of medetomidine cannot be reversed by naloxone.

“The ED [emergency department] had multiple patients present with opioid overdoses with dangerously slow heart rates and hypotension despite multiple doses of naloxone,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

In early June, NPR reported that there were 160 medetomidine-related hospitalizations in Philadelphia over three or four days.

Large-scale overdose events were also reported in Pittsburgh and Toronto, Canada , the news outlet noted.

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