Three killed by lethal new synthetic drug

THREE young men died in Birmingham after they took a new synthetic drug within three months of each other.

The drug is an opioid called N-pyrrolidino etonitazene, which is found for sale on the dark web.

Students Jakob Wozniak, 19, and entrepreneur Miles Elliott Davis, 27, lost their lives between October 2021 and January 2022.

Another 20-year-old also died in the same period.

Dr Judith Yates, who collates drug deaths in Birmingham and identified the deaths, revealed the drugs appeared to be a replacement for the opioid painkiller fentanyl.

However, it is 20 times stronger and the drugs were being acquired on the dark web rather than the street.

Mr Wozniak was found collapsed on January 3. His inquest confirmed the compound was a primary cause of death.

A full inquest into the death of Mr Davis is yet to take place after he died on October 10 last year.

A pathologist suggested the cause of death was N-pyrrolidino etonitazene toxicity.

Another man, from Sutton Coldfield, had been out with friends. But was found collapsed at home by a family member at 5.15am on October 2, last year. He had an underlying heart condition.

Birmingham coroner Emma Brown confirmed his death was due to “natural causes in combination with drug and alcohol use”.

Dr Yates said: “These three cases have come out of the blue; we’ve never seen this chemical before in Birmingham.” And added: “There is no way to tell what’s in a tablet that you’re getting either online or on the street.”

N-pyrrolidino etonitazene was first identified in May 2021. An 18-year-old man – thought to be the first person to take the drug in the UK – was treated by Dr Mark Pucci, a consultant at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The teen had been discovered unresponsive and breathing noisily by his mum in July last year.

Paramedics found no pulse and he was not breathing. But he was saved by an injection of an antidote naloxone.