Canberra drug-checking Service finds animal sedative in counterfeit pill

A member of the public presented a green, rectangular pill resembling a Xanax tablet, anticipating it was either a benzodiazepine or MDMA. Testing revealed the pill contained medetomidine.

“Medetomidine is quite dangerous in terms of its sedation, its risk of overdose and its effect on the body,” said Directions Health Services acting chief executive Stephanie Stephens. “It lowers blood pressure dangerously and it can be quite long acting and unpredictable. So it’s really good to make people aware.”

Unlike opioid overdoses, medetomidine’s effects cannot be reversed with naloxone.

The drug was previously detected by the Victorian Pill Service in counterfeit benzodiazepine tablets, and its presence has been increasing in unregulated drug markets across North America and parts of Europe.

“We’re unsure of its presence otherwise within the drug market, which goes to the benefit of drug checking,” Ms. Stephens stated. “We can get ahead of these kinds of detections and alert people early so that they can be aware.”

Ms. Stephens emphasized that drug checking allows health professionals to proactively identify circulating substances, rather than reacting to overdose incidents.

Last year, the ACT government issued a warning regarding other pills marketed as ‘Xanax’ that contained a novel benzodiazepine and a synthetic opioid.

“Drug checking is the only way to really know what is in the unregulated counterfeit illicit markets,” Ms. Stephens concluded.