A suspected “bad batch” of drugs that sent at least 27 people in West Baltimore to the hospital last week may have been the result of the powerful synthetic painkiller fentanyl plus at least one new drug not before found in illicit drugs, federal scientists found.
Drug samples collected from the Penn North neighborhood and believed to be tied to the mass overdoses contained N-methylclonazepam, a benzodiazepine derivative with intense sedative effects, said Edward Sisco, a research chemist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, whose lab now partners with 80 sites, such as needle exchange centers, in 15 states including Maryland, which send in trace amounts of drugs for testing.
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