>> Journalists there continue their extensive reporting on the use
and tracking of synthetic opioids.
These are powerful heroin-like drugs including the large animal
tranquilizer Carfentanil.
Milwaukee saw its first confirmed deaths from it last
month.
Users can unknowingly ingest these synthetics and fatally
overdose.
As WisContext reporter Scott Gordon found out toxicology labs
like the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene are
working to keep up with the novel combination so law
enforcement and health officials can understand and prevent their
spread.
>> Wisconsin is seeing more overdose deaths that involve
Carfentanil and Fentanyl.
But also occasionally seeing more of these synthetic opioids
that have a chemical structure very similar to Fentanyl but are
just different enough that they might
circumvent the usual lab tests for Fentanyl.
When people are doing toxicology tests,
often they usually go in knowing they're looking for a specific
set of things.
The thing that's difficult about some of these synthetic opioids
they're being illicitly manufactured in a lot of cases.
There isn't really a good frame of reference for how much should
be in a person's system because they've never been used in
normal medical context.
And they can be really potent in trace elements.
All of which makes it hard for people to keep up when they are
doing toxicology testing and trying to track the impact of
different drugs around the state.