‘This is how we are dying’
Readily accessible and cheap, synthetic drugs are killing some of society’s most vulnerable people, writes Vicki Anderson.
The rise of synthetic drugs – described as the ‘‘drug of choice for the poor’’ – has been recognised as a major public health problem in New Zealand.
In the wake of a coroner’s report last year that found more than 70 deaths in the past two years are likely to have been caused by the drugs, concern is growing among health and addiction experts.
There are also fears the problem will increasingly worsen with ‘‘synnies’’ now being imported in vape form.
Chief Coroner Judge Deborah
Marshall confirmed 24 deaths linked to the drugs since June 2017, and provisionally attributed another 50 cases to ‘‘synthetic cannabis toxicity’’.
Typically the deaths were caused by the so-called ‘‘zombie’’ drugs AMB-FUBINACA and 5F-ADB, which have killed many people worldwide.
They are a synthetic cannabinoid with an effect 75 times stronger than THC, the psychoactive compound found in cannabis. They bear no relation to cannabis.
In New Zealand, the first people to die from using synthetics were men living rough and little appears to have changed.
Experts say these homeless people might have had alcohol problems and their health is already compromised, so when they add a highly toxic substance like synthetic drugs, heart failure can be one of the consequences.
These drugs are relatively cheap – anywhere from $10 to $20 – and are, Christchurch addicts say, readily available on the street via Facebook or text.
Ross Bell, National Drug Foundation director, summed the situation up eloquently when he told
Stuff: ‘‘People with money can afford better drugs.’’
Stuff read the coronial reports for the 24 deaths attributable to the synthetic drugs. Of the 24, only one was a woman.
While some 20-somethings, often described as ‘‘recreational users’’, have died after using synthetics, the vast majority of those killed are unemployed and/or homeless men aged 40 and over.
Some of these men had also sought help for mental health concerns. Others had sought help for their addictions and, at the time of their deaths, were waiting for places in residential rehabilitation.
Tragically, the young people killed by synthetics are typically found by mothers, siblings and friends.
Grimly, many older men die because those around them – not friends but, as more than one coroner describes them, associates – are themselves so wasted on synnies they just don’t notice.
When it comes to synthetic drugs, the following examples, taken from coroners’ reports, offer an insight into the events which led to the deaths of some of society’s most vulnerable and often marginalised people. This is how they are dying.
The 50-year-old unemployed Hastings man was a chronic user of synthetic drugs and also had hepatitis C. He met his partner when they were both homeless and living on the streets of Wellington. They were in a relationship for seven years and, although they had long ago separated, were still friends and shared a home.
One day in July 2017, he went out
at 3pm and, when he returned, she considered he was ‘‘high on something’’, as he was mumbling and not talking properly. He started cooking himself some soup at 6pm.
She made him some more food and left him in the kitchen to eat it.
Afterwards she went to bed and fell asleep.
At 11pm she woke up and found him on the floor. He was crouching next to the bed. When she tried to pull him to his feet he ‘‘kept falling down’’. She called for an ambulance.
Thirteen minutes later a St John ambulance paramedic declared him dead.
AMB-FUBINACA acid metabolite was found in his blood.
The coroner found his death remained undetermined despite a full autopsy, but was satisfied AMB-FUBINACA toxicity likely played a part in his death.
The unemployed 44-year-old man consumed synthetic drugs with his two sons, smoking eight bongs in his Rotorua garage in August 2017.
The last bong was smoked at 3am. One of his sons consumed synthetics at the same time in a car parked nearby.
The son fell asleep in the car and, when he woke up the next day, saw his father lying face down on the concrete floor of the garage, having slipped from his chair.
It was not an uncommon sight so the son dragged his father towards the roller door and placed a blanket over him, believing he would soon wake.
When he was still unresponsive an hour later, the son sought help and emergency services confirmed he had died some time earlier.
He was known to have suffered from substance abuse issues, particularly synthetics, and had been subject to mental health care as a result of suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.
He received medication for the latter by way of regular injection of antipsychotic medication.
Help had been offered to him to deal with his addiction issues but he had declined it.
Blood analysis revealed the presence of AMB-FUBINACA acid.
Coroner M Robb found the man died from complications of the use of synthetic drugs antecedent to cardiovascular atheromatous disease, which causes a lack of blood to flow to the heart, due to deposits of waxy plaques, formed by fatty substances including: waste product from cells, cholesterol; and lipid material.
About four weeks later, just after lunch on a week day, police were called over a car stopped in the middle of a Rotorua road.
The driver, one of the man’s sons, was slumped at the wheel and unresponsive.
Members of the public pushed the car to the side of the road and removed the car keys. When police arrived, the driver suffered a seizure and was rushed to hospital.
There he told staff he was upset over his father’s death.
He was released later that afternoon and advised not to take any more synthetic drugs.
Police visited his family home half an hour later and found the two sons unconscious and unresponsive in a car parked at the rear of the property. An ambulance was called, and both sons were eventually woken and assessed.
When his father died in traumatic circumstances the unemployed 49-yearold Taupo¯ man turned to drugs and alcohol.
An alcoholic, he drank methylated spirits and often had a bottle nearby. Sometimes he flavoured it with cordial but mostly he drank it straight.
He smoked cannabis but, once synthetics became legally available in shops, he would drink meths and smoke synthetics to the point of losing consciousness.
While he had sought help with his addictions, he remained firmly in their grasp.
After being evicted, he moved in with his mum who described him as a good son despite his issues.
The night in August 2017 when he died, he and friends had bought a 12-pack of lager and a bag of synthetics called Not Pot. He collapsed on the dining-room floor of a friend’s home.
‘‘I came out of the shower and saw him collapse on the floor,’’ the friend later told authorities.
‘‘When I came out I just saw him blow smoke after coning synthetics. He was standing leaning against the freezer before he collapsed. He was between the freezer and the dining room table ...
‘‘After he blew out the smoke, he collapsed on the area between the table and the freezer. He fell backwards to the ground and landed on his back. I said: did he just have some of that crap? and they go: oh yeah. I meant synthetics. I cleared the table and the chair and moved it away a bit and gave him 20 minutes because that is what normally happens.
‘‘They go to sleep. He laid on the floor with his eyes open and they were flickering. I thought he was sleeping because that is what they normally do.’’
This was not an unusual event and his associates initially did not move to help him. But eventually, when they checked for a pulse and found none, emergency services were called.
He was not breathing when they arrived but was revived and taken to Taupo¯ Hospital. Later that afternoon he was transferred by helicopter to Waikato Hospital. He developed myoclonic seizures.
Testing showed a brain injury with no chance of meaningful neurological recovery. His life support was withdrawn.
Coroner G Matenga ruled he collapsed as a result of consuming the synthetic drugs AMBFUBINACA and 5F-ADB, which caused a cardiac arrhythmia.
The sudden cardiac event was not recognised in a timely way, leading to a delay in effective resuscitation, leading to severe hypoxic brain injury and death.
The 21-year-old man, described as an ‘‘awesome kid’’ who worked as a cook in a rest home, smoked synthetic drugs with two friends in his bedroom in Feilding in September 2017.
They locked the door so ‘‘nobody could see the state of us when we were high’’, one of the friends later recalled.
A bong, home-made out of a plastic fizzy drink bottle, was used to smoke synthetics. It was much stronger than usual. All three passed out.
When one of the trio woke up, he found one of his friends lying unconscious on the floor, with his head inside a wardrobe. Emergency services were called and a family member started performing CPR.
Emergency services found the man unconscious and in cardiac arrest. He was unable to be revived by ambulance staff and was pronounced dead.
Synthetic cannabinoid metabolite 5F-ADB acid was detected in his blood and synthetic cannabinoid toxicity said to be the probable cause of death.
The unemployed 61-year-old Auckland woman lived in an apartment with her partner of more than a decade. A heavy drinker, her favourite tipple was Diesel – bourbon and cola.
She regularly smoked cannabis but just before she died she had started smoking synthetic drugs.
The night she died she had been in Karangahape Rd, asking people for money for ‘‘smokes’’. About 11pm that night in October 2017, a friend found her intoxicated with a bottle of Woodstock in her hand.
He and another friend helped walk her home.
During the walk she collapsed five times. At home, she sat down in a chair and smoked synthetics. After she did so, she suddenly collapsed forward, landing on the floor on her face.
She stayed there, face down. Her friends checked she was still breathing. She seemed to be snoring. One person left and the other went to sleep.
When he awoke in the early hours of the morning she was still on the floor. He left at 4am, headed for K Rd, without checking her.
At 4pm when he returned, she was not breathing.
The cause of her death was AMB-FUBINACA toxicity.
The unemployed 23-year-old Auckland man returned to New Zealand from Australia in 2015 after suffering brain trauma when he was hit over the head with a metal push scooter.
This assault cracked his head and caused a brain bleed. After this attack he heard voices in his head continuously. Mental health professionals diagnosed him with organic psychosis complicated by cannabis and abuse of other substances.
His mother told authorities the voices told him negative things and he used synthetics as a way of silencing them.
In Australia, he had used cocaine, ecstasy, MDMA and meth, and had also occasionally inhaled petrol.
In New Zealand, he was in the care of various mental health services for his psychosis and drug use.
In the months leading up to his death in November 2017 there were several concerning incidents, including one where he was taken into police custody after brandishing a hammer in public.
At a respite facility he admitted he had consumed a lot of synthetics in recent months.
Two months later he was admitted to a mental health inpatient unit after stating he wanted to harm himself.
This was after he learned that some of his friends had died after consuming synthetics. He felt guilty and that others were blaming him for their deaths.
He continued to consume synthetics and healthcare professionals felt residential rehabilitation would be the next best step. When he died, he was on the waiting list to be admitted to Odyssey House.
His sister found him, collapsed mid-seizure at the front of the family home, a bong made from a child’s sippy cup nearby. She called emergency services and started CPR. An ambulance arrived shortly afterwards but he was unable to be revived.
The coroner found his death was from complications of acute synthetic drug intoxication, particularly of the drug AMBFUBINACA.
The unemployed 51-year-old man and his friend bought synthetics from an address in Auckland. They smoked it in a bucket bong.
He had no known health issues and exercised regularly.
After smoking synthetics, he started shaking and was, according to his friend, ‘‘nutting out’’.
The friend grabbed him and made him sit on the bed.
Eventually his behaviour returned to normal. His friend had seen him behave like it before, another time he had used synthetics.
But when he took ‘‘another pull on the bucket bong’’ he had a seizure and fell off the bed on to the floor, not speaking. His friend described his hands as being ‘‘all crunched up’’ and said he ‘‘looked like a zombie’’.
When his brother arrived home that night in 2017, he discovered him unresponsive on his bedroom floor. His friend was asleep on a couch in the room. When he tried to wake his brother, the friend woke and left.
Emergency services were called and the first responders, fire service staff, moved him into the living area and commenced CPR.
When ambulance staff arrived a short time later, they took over.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police got a warrant and searched the address where the synthetic drugs were sold.
Synthetic drugs were found. The occupants of the address were arrested and charged with supplying synthetics.
No charges were laid in relation to the man’s death.
Forensic pathologist Dr Kilak Kesha reported that the direct cause of his death was AMBFUBINACA toxicity.
Coroner KH Greig found the man intentionally ingested the synthetics for ‘‘recreational purposes’’ but did not do so with the intention of ending his life and thus ruled his death occurred as a result of AMB-FUBINACA toxicity, self-ingested in circumstances in which suicide cannot be found.
The last time he was alive on a quiet day in February 2018, he was seen by a neighbour having a cigarette beside a barbecue table.
Another neighbour found the 56-year-old Napier truck driver dead the next day, slumped on his couch, head face down between the armrest and cushion beside the door of his shared accommodation.
It was unusual for the TV to be off and the lights were not on.
As soon as she opened the door, the neighbour later told police: ‘‘I could smell that he had been dead for a while’’. She carefully placed a blanket over him.
There were two point bags of synthetics on the coffee table. Next to his feet police found what appeared to be half a synthetic cigarette and a lighter on the floor.
He was identified by his daughter.
Direct cause of death: inhalation of synthetic cannabinoids AMBFUBINACA and 5F-ADB; emphysema was a significant condition contributing to his death.
The 51-year-old unemployed man died alone in an Auckland boarding house. The last reported sighting of him in April 2018 was eight days before his body was found by his landlord, lying unresponsive on his bed, after another resident raised concerns.
His death was caused by AMBFUBINACA toxicity.
The mother described her dead 24-year-old son as looking as if he was ‘‘kneeling in prayer’’. A night-shift worker who was fit and a regular gym goer, he did not even have a GP because he had only ever had minor illnesses.
After repeatedly knocking on his door to wake him up, she found him that fateful morning in 2018, kneeling on the floor of his bedroom, ‘‘slouched over’’, and said it looked as if he was almost praying.
He was unresponsive and cold to touch. She frantically tried to do CPR but her son did not respond.
Police were unable to establish where the synthetic drugs were purchased so were unable to take steps to pursue the supplier.
His death was directly caused by AMB-FUBINACA toxicity.
Six days after being released from prison in September 2018, the unemployed Christchurch man, with a history of extensive synthetic drug use, bought a $20 bag of synnies from a friend.
He made himself a bong, packed it with half of his purchase and shared the rest out to his mate.
He smoked it in an alcove beside her kitchen.
She later found him face down and unresponsive at the back of the property.
His death was caused by the toxic effect of synthetic drugs.
When the 33-year-old homeless man sought a place to sleep in Hamilton in November 2018 he was welcomed.
Those offering him shelter noted he looked wasted and was mumbling to himself.
Police later established he had smoked synthetics.
He fell asleep in the lounge that night. In the morning his eyes were glazed and he was sleepy. Falling off a chair, he vomited. However, when police attended later that afternoon he had died.
His death was a result of complications of recreational drug and synthetic cannabinoid use.
The 47-year-old sickness beneficiary was discovered dead on the floor of the kitchen of his North Island home by a friend.
The kitchen tap was still running and the floor was flooded.
He was lying face down, his face half submerged in the water. An ambulance was called but it was clear he was dead and there were no attempts to resuscitate him.
The cause of death was hypothermia with multiple drug intoxication, including AMBFUBINACA, contributing to his death.