Urgent health alert issued after discovery of deadly cocktail of drugs called ‘Super Mario’
New York state has issued an emergency health warning about a deadly combination of drugs that officials are calling “Super Mario.”
The powder consists of fentanyl, which is a hundred times more powerful than morphine, traces of heroin, carfentanil β an elephant tranquilizer β and xylazine, a flesh-eating tranquilizer that is increasingly appearing in the illegal drug supply.
The alert was issued last week after state drug regulators found two bags of “Super Mario” on the street in downtown New York last month and tested them last week.
A third sample is currently being tested.
Fentanyl and carfentanil are very powerful and more deadly than heroin, another opioid. Just a few grains of either can be fatal
The graph above shows how drug overdose deaths have increased since 2002, when the report began
The New York State Department of Health, in collaboration with the ACRHealth laboratory in Syracuse, said: ‘Two samples were tested from bags labeled ‘Super Mario’ and found to contain a combination of fentanyl, xylazine and trace amounts of heroin and carfentanil β a powerful drug considered up to 100 times stronger than fentanyl.β
New York State has not announced any deaths directly linked to “Super Mario.”
Health Commissioner Dr James McDonald said: ‘Carfentenil is a veterinary drug that is no longer marketed because it is so dangerous.
βThe Department is working with community programs that provide access to drug screening so that these dangerous substances are identified before they are used by someone who is using drugs and is at risk of overdose.β
More than 6,300 New Yorkers died from a fentanyl overdose in 2023, and about 80,000 die annually in the U.S. from abusing the drug.
Fentanyl is about 50 times more powerful than heroin, and a small dose is enough to kill.
Carfentanil is also becoming increasingly common. The Drug Enforcement Administration warned the public about this more than eight years ago.
The above shows a person on the streets of San Francisco who has seen a wave of drug overdoses
DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg said in 2016: ‘Carfentanil is showing up in more and more communities
‘We see it on the streets, often disguised as heroin. It’s insanely dangerous. Synthetic substances such as fentanyl and carfentanil can be fatal. I hope our first responders β and the public β will read and heed our health and safety alert.β
Xylazine is a tranquilizer used by veterinarians and is not approved for human use.
It is known to cause blackouts and severe lesions. It eats away at skin tissue because it blocks blood flow through the blood vessels.
All of the drugs in ‘Super Mario’ massively depress the respiratory system, slowing breathing to dangerously low levels or stopping it altogether.
The combination also leads to sedation, in which case the person will be unaware of their breathing problems, increasing the risk of death.
An estimated 108,000 Americans overdosed and died in 2022, the last year for which data is available.
The number of deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone (mainly fentanyl) continued to rise, with 73,838 overdose deaths in 2022 compared to previous years.