A warning about a potentially fatal batch of pills sold illegally as an ecstasy-type drug has been issued in Canberra, after a person overdosed and became seriously ill.
Calvary Hospital emergency physician David Caldicott said in the past two weeks, Calvary Healthcare had treated a seriously ill patient following a NBOMe drug overdose.
“The patient provided a sample of the pill consumed for toxicology testing, and from this test the pill was confirmed to contain dangerous chemicals 25C-NBOMe and 25I-NBOMe,” he said.
Dr Caldicott said every now and again a “bad batch” of drugs surfaced in Canberra, either as ecstasy, heroin or amphetamines.
“However, this particular pill is tainted with not just one, but two varieties of a very dangerous category of drug, which if consumed could be potentially fatal or at least cause serious health problems,” he said.
Dr Caldicott said even half a pill had enough NBOMe to make the user critically ill.
He said it was more usual for the drug to be found as “blotters”, impregnated on small pieces of blotting paper.
“Which makes their presence in pill form all the more dangerous for an unsuspecting user,” Dr Caldicott said.
“The NBOMe pills are a type of psychedelic phenethylamine drug… patients have been hurt and killed from both behavioural effects while hallucinating, as well as the toxicological effects on the circulation.”
Risks include seizures, organ failure or death
People with acute NBOMe toxicity could experience cardiovascular complications, agitation, seizures, hyperthermia, metabolic acidosis, organ failure and even death, Dr Caldicott said.
“At this stage we do not know how widespread its distribution might be, but we are consulting widely with colleagues interstate,” he said.
The pill sample supplied to doctors by the affected patient was analysed by the ACTINOS Group, a collaboration of experts whose purpose is to provide fast analysis of drugs associated with emergency situations.
The group includes ACT emergency doctors and staff from the ACT Government Analytical Laboratory and the Australian National University, and is unique to Australia.
ACT Health warned anyone who took a pill with different effects to what they expected, to seek urgent medical advice from a GP or hospital emergency department.
Anyone with information on the supply of such drugs was asked to call ACT Policing Operations or Crime Stoppers.