Meet Iso, the Mega-Opioid Threatening South Florida
Florida is not for the faint of heart. Even the boldest and bravest people are no match for the terrifying sights, sounds, and events that the Sunshine State has in store. In fact, the best way to deal with the horrors of Florida is to put them in perspective by comparing them to something similar but even scarier. Think you are vulnerable when a hurricane strikes Florida? You are, but you are much safer if you take shelter farther inland, and Florida has a much larger non-coastal land area than the Caribbean islands that are in the direct path of hurricanes as frequently as Florida is. Driving on I-95 in Miami is a nerve-wracking experience, but it is no worse than driving in Los Angeles, Cairo, or Lagos. The alligators in Florida are plenty scary, especially given their ubiquity, but they are smaller and less aggressive to humans than the Nile crocodile and the saltwater crocodile. So far, no saltwater crocodiles have ever been spotted in the wild in Florida, and there has only been one confirmed sighting of a Nile crocodile; blame the illegal trade in exotic pets. Besides, alligators kill fewer Floridians per year than lightning does. As for Florida lightning storms, it is hard to think of anywhere that they are worse. Fentanyl, by contrast, is not the scariest drug in Florida, not anymore. Every so often, a “worse than fentanyl” drug appears in Florida’s illegal drug supply, and journalists have a feeding frenzy. Here, our Miami drug crimes defense lawyer explains what is so dangerous about iso and why South Florida is one of the places where you are most likely to run into it.
Iso Is the Most Monstrous of the Nitazenes
Fentanyl, which causes more overdose deaths in the United States than any other drug, is 100 times as strong as morphine, but it is not the most powerful opioid, and in probably never has been. N-desethylisotonitazene, also known as norisotonitazene or iso, is eight times as strong as fentanyl. It is part of a category of synthetic opioids called nitazenes, which vary in potency from approximately equal to morphine to hundreds of times stronger. Forensic studies estimate that one out of every 20 drug overdose deaths in 2021 involved nitazenes, although the users and the sellers who provided the drugs were usually unaware that the nitazenes were part of the drug mixture. A 2020 memorandum from the Attorney General of Florida listed eight different nitazenes that had turned up in crime labs as part of drug mixtures confiscated by police.
Iso was first synthesized in the mid-20th century, and although its manufacturers intended it for medical use, it never received FDA approval for clinical use, or even for medical research. Eventually, fentanyl came along and produced the clinical effects that iso was supposed to produce, but with less risk of adverse outcomes. Therefore, fentanyl is a schedule II controlled substance and is widely used in small doses for surgical anesthesia and in transdermal patches.
Even though iso is so powerful than a grain of iso powder barely visible to the naked eye can kill, no one worried much about it until recently, because it was not prevalent in the drug supply. It appeared once in Philadelphia in 2021 and then in Palm Beach County in 2022. Earlier this year, a forensics lab detected iso in another drug powder confiscated from Palm Beach County.
Legal Consequences of Possession of Iso
Iso, like many other nitazenes, has not formally been listed on any of the drug schedules of the Controlled Substances Act. Since it has no legally recognized medical uses, the courts treat it like an unofficial Schedule I controlled substance. The other drug schedules are for pharmaceutical drugs that are at least sometimes legal to use in a medical setting and to possess if a doctor has prescribed them to you. If someone dies from an overdose after buying drugs from you, whether the drug mixture includes iso or anything else, you could face charges for drug delivery resulting in death, which is similar to a manslaughter charge.
And Now a Reality Check
Opioids, no matter how strong, are not the worst-case scenario. It is possible to reverse symptoms of opioid overdose if the patient promptly receives naloxone, even if the opioid is something as strong as iso.
Contact Our Criminal Defense Attorneys
A South Florida criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing charges for selling or transporting synthetic opioids. Contact Ratzan & Faccidomo in Miami, Florida for a confidential consultation about your case.
Source:
wpbf.com/article/palm-beach-county-florida-iso-doctors-discuss-dangers-street-drug-more-potent-fentanyl-osiyemi-rad/61639388
