(NewsNation) — Two young men died within months of each other after unknowingly consuming nitazenes, a type of synthetic opioid that is 43 times more potent than fentanyl, according to their grieving mothers who are now speaking out to warn other families.
Lucci McCallister, 22, died Jan. 26 after taking what he believed was Xanax. Three months later, his friend Hunter Clement, 21, died after consuming what he thought was Percocet. Toxicology reports revealed both pills were composed entirely of nitazenes.
The deaths have prompted the victims’ mothers, Grey McCallister and Ruthi Clement, to launch a public awareness campaign about the largely unknown drug that is being mixed into street drugs similar to fentanyl.
“The only reason we caught it in Lucci’s case was because there was nothing else there,” Grey McCallister said Monday on NewsNation’s “CUOMO.” “It’s not on drug testing panels, the majority of them right now. EMS is not very aware of it, as well as your ER physicians.”
McCallister, who has a background in health care education, said the medical examiner’s office emphasized that typical substances found in overdose cases were absent from her son’s toxicology report.
Instead, Lucci had consumed “pure nitazenes,” she said.
Nitazenes not detected in most testing panels, requires multiple Narcan
The synthetic opioid requires multiple uses of Narcan to potentially revive someone and is primarily manufactured in clandestine laboratories in China, according to retired DEA Administrator Jack Riley.
“This is 100% stronger, probably, than street level heroin,” Riley said. “So the people using it and the people selling it have absolutely no idea what they’re taking.”
Riley warned that nitazenes represent “the next play in the cartel playbook” as criminal organizations seek to replicate their success with fentanyl distribution.
The drug is expected to appear in various formats, similar to how fentanyl evolved from being mixed with heroin to appearing in counterfeit pills.
Mothers launch awareness campaign to prevent more deaths
The mothers said they connected after Hunter’s death because they felt their sons’ deaths should not be in vain. They now advocate for greater awareness of nitazenes’ dangers.
“Every single person that I have connected and had a conversation with has no idea what [nitazenes are] and how dangerous it is,” Clement said.
Both mothers have faced criticism on social media, with some commenters blaming them for their sons’ deaths. The women said their sons did not intentionally consume nitazenes and would not have taken the pills if they knew the potential consequences.