What is 'flysky', the new lethal drug that could be the new fentanyl
The drug is being sold throughout the Pittsburgh region, with at least two overdose deaths recorded in the last few days, according to local police.
It has also been seen in Philadelphia, Chicago and other areas.
The drug is made up of heroin laced with medetomidine, a tranquiliser used by vets.
It is an alternative to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid which has become increasingly popular in both the US and UK in recent years. Also mixed with heroin, fentanyl has lead to numerous overdose deaths.
Fayette County District Attorney Michael Aubele says that users need to be aware that it can be lethal.
'My understanding is that medetomidine is a drug that is not affected by Narcan. So if you overdose on medetomidine, Narcan is not going to save you,' he told CBS Pittsburgh.
Narcan is an opioid antagonist, a medication used to reverse or reduce the effects of opioids, such as heroin.
Mr Aubele says that local and state police are working to to get 'flysky' off the streets and his office will prosecute those responsible for making and distributing it.
'We want people to be safe. We want everybody to be alive and to be healthy. You just don't know what you are getting anymore on the street,' he added.
He encouraged anyone who may have a bag of the drug to turn it into authorities at several places in the county, including police stations, with no questions asked. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMvYYpaC8k7/
Matthew Atha, from the Independent Drug Monitoring Unit, said he had not been made aware of the drug in the UK.
He added that since the Taliban clampdown on opium production in Afghanistan he has been predicting a rise in overdose deaths caused by 'adulteration or replacement of heroin powders with fentanyl, carfentanyl or nitazenes [all opioids]'
He said these drugs were so potent that incomplete mixing during the adulteration process can lead to 'hot spots' capable of causing overdoses.
In reference to 'flysky' he told Metro: 'Why would an animal tranquilliser be used as an adulterant when other substances are available? I would consider it very unlikely that this would take off in the UK.'
Mr Atha said many drugs have appeared in the USA but never made the transition to the UK.
'In the late '60s and '70s it was PCP (phencyclidine aka 'Angel Dust'), and since the '90s crystal meth (methamphetamine) has been popular in the UK but limited to a few niche markets, for example chemsex parties,' he explained.
In the UK, charities have said they're preparing for an 'epidemic of death' due to the emergence of nitazenes, the synthetic opioid mentioned by Mr Atha.
Nitazenes – which are fifty times stronger than heroin – have infiltrated illicit drug supplies and are linked to hundreds of deaths. More Trending
First detected in white powder sampled from a Wakefield taxi in April 2021, nitazenes have since been found in cannabis, crack cocaine, heroin and even vapes.
Earlier this summer a 28-year-old man and 20-year-old woman died in Southall, west London, after taking pills that contained nitazenes.
It is believed they may have thought they were buying ecstasy or powerful painkiller oxycodon.
Opioid use and overdoses have been on the rise for more than a decade across the UK – in 2022, 46% of the 2,261 drug poisoning deaths involved an opiate.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
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Telegraph
17 hours ago
- Telegraph
Iran asks Taliban for ‘kill list' so it can hunt down MI6 spies
Leaders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards have asked the Taliban for access to a leaked list of Afghans who helped Britain so they can hunt down MI6 spies. The Tehran regime hopes to examine the list of nearly 25,000 Afghans who worked with British forces as they seek leverage with the West ahead of nuclear negotiations this autumn. The so-called 'kill list' contains the names of Afghans who were applying for asylum, including soldiers who had worked with the British Army, intelligence assets and special forces. Some are believed to have subsequently fled to Iran. In a sign that the two sides are already collaborating, at least one Afghan whose name was allegedly on the list has been deported from Iran to Kabul in the past few days. A senior Iranian official in Tehran confirmed that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had formally requested that the Taliban government share the leaked list. It is understood that MI6 intelligence assets will take priority in the search. He said: 'On the Iranian side, there are also efforts to find the list, with a special committee assigned for it. There have been discussions on cooperation between Tehran and Kabul on this issue as it can help both countries for negotiations with the West.' The Telegraph understands that Taliban leadership in Kandahar has also ordered officers in Kabul to arrest as many individuals as possible from the leaked document to use them as leverage in exerting diplomatic pressure on London. The database was accidentally leaked in February 2022 when a Royal Marine emailed the complete file to Afghan contacts in Britain instead of sending a small extract. The spreadsheet contained names, telephone numbers and email addresses of Afghan soldiers, government workers and family members who applied to relocate to Britain under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy after the 2021 Western military withdrawal. The list also included identities of more than 100 British special forces personnel and MI6 operatives who had vouched for Afghan applicants. A Taliban government official told The Telegraph that they obtained the spreadsheet in 2022. Speaking to this newspaper last month, he said: 'After the reports were published in England, it became clear how significant this leak was. The order is to arrest as many individuals as possible to use them as a tool of diplomatic pressure against England.' The IRGC's demand comes after Britain, France and Germany threatened Tehran with a so-called snapback mechanism, which would restore UN Security Council resolutions against Iran, if no progress is made on negotiations over its nuclear programme by August 30. The most significant resolution that would return is 1929, adopted in June 2010, which expanded sanctions beyond technical nuclear restrictions to target Iran's broader economy. The resolution required all UN members to take 'all necessary measures' to enforce Iran's enrichment ban and ballistic missile restrictions. Iran has refused to abandon uranium enrichment that could ultimately lead to a nuclear weapon, despite a bombing campaign by Israel and the US last month. Iranian authorities want to check borders and detain Afghans in Iran whose names appear on the list, with particular focus on those who worked as intelligence operatives, according to the Iranian official. He said: 'There is an urgency to find as many of them as possible before the snapback deadlines arrive to use them as backdoor bargaining tools.' A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: 'We take the safety of our personnel very seriously and personnel, particularly those in sensitive positions, always have appropriate measures in place to protect their security. 'The independent Rimmer Review concluded that it is highly unlikely that merely being on the spreadsheet means an individual is more likely to be targeted, and this is the basis on which the court lifted its super-injunction.' David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, is prepared to trigger sanctions against Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, The Telegraph revealed last year. The UK remains a participant in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and can unilaterally force a return to sanctions if it considers Iran has violated the deal's terms. At least one Afghan whose name appeared on the leaked list, and who had escaped to Iran after the leak, was detained for deportation on Friday. His son was ill, and his wife and two daughters remained in Iran, the deported man said, 'unable even to go out and buy bread.' 'They arrested me on the street, handcuffed me, and sent me to a deportation camp,' he told The Telegraph from Kabul. 'I pleaded with them. I told them my life would be in danger in Afghanistan. I shouted, 'Where are human rights?' But they didn't care. They sent me straight to the border.' 'They can come and kill me any moment' He questioned whether the Government was truly unaware of what was happening in Iran. 'There are many people like me there – being deported, being arrested,' he said. 'The British know all of this. If they wanted to help, they would've done it already. But they don't want to.' Now in Kabul, he said he was constantly on the move, hiding in a different place each night, afraid for his own safety and for his family left behind in Iran. 'They can come and kill me any moment,' he said. 'But it doesn't matter to anyone any more. That's just my life now.' He expressed bitter frustration over the UK's resettlement priorities. 'I hope the Brits are happy – they took cooks and masseurs to Britain, but those who lost their eyes serving British forces, and many more are left behind,' he said. 'Maybe that's what they wanted. I just regret not realising it sooner.' He asked how it was possible that the Government – 'once rulers of half the world – could remain blind to the situation'. 'They took cooks, but left behind generals and colonels,' he said. 'What kind of logic is that?' The Telegraph has revealed that former Taliban members were brought to the UK on British evacuation flights from Afghanistan after the leak. The individuals were flown out for their safety, but among them were suspected jihadists, sex offenders, corrupt officials, and people previously jailed by US-led forces – raising concerns over poor vetting. Insiders say some Afghans are also exploiting a family reunion scheme set up after the leak and are using it to enter the UK under false pretences. The Telegraph understands that evacuated migrants are offering people in Afghanistan help to get to Britain, including fake family links for up to £20,000 per person. Iran is using espionage allegations against Afghans as a pretext for the mass arrests and deportations following the recent conflict with Israel. The Telegraph spoke to Afghans in Iran, at the border, and in Afghanistan, who said the regime in Tehran was targeting them to divert public attention from its 'humiliation' by Israel in last month's 12-day war. During the conflict, daily deportations jumped from 2,000 to over 30,000 as Iranian authorities turned public anger toward the vulnerable minority. Those persecuted by the regime also reported suffering widespread abuses including beatings and arbitrary detention. The Government imposed a super-injunction in September 2023 preventing media coverage of the data breach, which has been described as one of the most damaging intelligence leaks in recent history. The injunction was extended before last year's election, despite a judge's decision to lift it in May 2024. Johnny Mercer, the former Conservative veterans minister who served in Afghanistan, called the leak 'gut-wrenching.' The Government established an emergency scheme called the Afghanistan Response Route in March 2024 to airlift people named in the breach to the UK. The total relocation program for Afghans could cost up to £7bn of taxpayers' money.
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
Jobless, homeless and helpless without a man: Afghan women expelled by Iran into hands of the Taliban
Safia* thought she had finally found safety for herself and her children. After years of violence and hardship at the hands of her husband, a police officer who became a Taliban commander in the western province of Herat, Safia and her two children had fled to Iran in 2018 to start a new life. There, with the help of other refugee Afghan women, she had started a small clothing business and had built a fragile but dignified life for herself and her family. Two weeks ago, that all collapsed when Safia and her teenage children were given a deportation notice. They joined hundreds of thousands of other refugees being rounded up and forced back over the border into Afghanistan. Now back in Herat, Safia lives in daily terror of her husband and his family. 'I was his second wife. My father forced me to marry him because he had money and power. He used to beat me constantly,' she says. 'Here in Herat, it is not safe for me. My husband is now working with the Taliban and still has influence.' Even though Safia was able to pull together some money before she was deported, she has not been able to find anywhere stable for her and her children to live and has no way of making a living. Of the estimated 800,000 undocumented Afghan refugees and migrants who were returned from Iran between 1 June and 23 July this year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says that 153,000 were women. Zuhal Nabi, of IOM Afghanistan, says of these 153,000 women, 8% are 'female-headed households', deported back to Afghanistan alone with their children without a husband or male guardian. All have been forcibly returned to a country operating under what is in effect a system of gender apartheid, and where women's rights have been stripped back to the bone. Safia and thousands like her find themselves in a country where women cannot rent homes without a male guardian, where they are barred from most paid work and cannot even visit a health clinic without a male escort. Human rights and aid organisations are warning that the number of single women who have been deported from Iran in the past few weeks has already overwhelmed the few remaining support systems, leaving many female-headed households trapped in poverty and exposed to abuse. Reporters from Zan Times talked to nine women forced to return to Afghanistan from Iran with their children but without a male guardian, all of whom say they are struggling to find shelter and food, while facing a maze of legal, economic and cultural restrictions. Fahima, who returned to Afghanistan in June, says no landlord will rent to her. 'They tell me outright that Taliban rules forbid it,' she says. 'I've been couch-surfing with relatives since I arrived. The only way to get a house is if a male relative signs the lease.' Two rental agents who agreed to be interviewed say it is impossible for them to offer housing to single or unaccompanied women. 'All rental agreements must be registered with the Taliban intelligence. If we rent to an unaccompanied woman, we risk imprisonment,' the owner of a small real-estate company in Herat says. 'It's just not worth it.' The lack of housing is matched by a lack of work. Raqia, a recently returned widow, says the only available jobs are underground and precarious. Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion 'Even if a woman has skills, like tailoring or hairdressing, she must work in secret, at home. In Iran, I worked in a handbag factory; here, I can't work outside at all.' Almost all of the women talked of feelings of grief at losing everything they had and being sent back to Afghanistan. Sabera from Kunduz recalls how she lost all her possessions when her family was expelled abruptly. 'They didn't even let us take our furniture. We left with just one set of clothes each,' she says. 'The Iranian police beat my sons so badly they couldn't eat. I had to take them to the hospital often. My children now suffer from trauma. No one listens to us. We are refugees – we have no rights.' Maida moved to Iran with her son after her husband, a police officer under the previous government, died in a military operation. She says when she was detained by police in Iran, she was alone, queueing for bread. 'They didn't let me go home to get my son. They just took me to the deportation camp in Shandiz and sent me back to Herat.' Now living with members of her extended family, Maida faces the impossible choice of remaining separated from her son or risking another dangerous journey back. 'I can't stay here, away from my child, dependent on relatives, but without a passport and with Iran no longer issuing visas, I don't know how to get back to him. 'I can't live like this,' she says, 'but I don't know what to do.' * All names have been changed This article has been published in partnership with Zan Times.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
Asbestos kills more troops than the Taliban: National disgrace revealed by Mail as toxic MoD homes and equipment caused NINE TIMES more deaths than 20-year Afghan campaign
Asbestos killed nine times more military veterans than there were British victims of the Taliban during the Afghan campaign, government records reveal. Exposure to the deadly material in poor military accommodation, ships, submarines, helicopters and even tanks is causing an average of 89 cases a year of mesothelioma – a fatal cancer caused by asbestos. Former service personnel could be up to ten times more likely to develop an asbestos-related disease than the general public, says the British Occupational Hygiene Society, which campaigns for workplace safety. A compensation row has also broken out, with affected veterans offered significantly less than civilians. Over the past nine years, since a military mesothelioma compensation scheme was introduced, Ministry of Defence figures show there have been 803 payouts totalling £112.5million. All of the claimants were terminally ill. A similar number died from asbestosis and other asbestos-related lung cancers, annual Health and Safety Executive figures suggest. During the 20 years British service personnel were deployed to Afghanistan – from 2001 to 2021 – that equates to 3,560 asbestos-related deaths among veterans, which is thought to be a conservative estimate. In comparison, 405 serving men and women lost their lives due to the hostile actions of the Taliban, out of a total of 457 UK casualties in Afghanistan. Liz Darlison, chief executive of the charity Mesothelioma UK, said: 'We should hang our heads in shame – exposing our boys and girls to asbestos is killing them way faster than the Taliban ever could.' Asbestos-related disease is Britain's biggest industrial killer, taking more than 5,000 lives a year. Just over half of those are due to mesothelioma, an incurable cancer affecting the lungs and stomach membrane. Symptoms can appear anything from 20 to 60 years after exposure to asbestos fibres. It is always fatal, and once victims are diagnosed, most die in a year. The Daily Mail's Asbestos: Britain's Hidden Killer campaign has been calling for Government action and demanding a phased removal of the material from public buildings, plus the establishment of a register to record where the material is and its condition. Until 2016, veterans with mesothelioma could not claim compensation from the MoD under the legal doctrine of Crown Immunity. Legislation was passed in 2014 to waive that immunity and a War Pension Scheme was established. Claims for other diseases such as asbestosis can sometimes be made to the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme depending on strict circumstances. Ms Darlison said: 'Our national network of mesothelioma nurses see a disproportionate number of military veterans. It isn't something that's talked about – but it should be. It's a national disgrace. Even more of a disgrace is how they are treated by the military once their disease is diagnosed.' The Daily Mail's 'Asbestos: Britain's Hidden Killer' campaign has been calling for Government action and demanding a phased removal of the material from public buildings, plus the establishment of a register to record where the material is and its condition Research for Mesothelioma UK by Sheffield University found serious inequalities in how military veterans are treated compared with civilians. Under the War Pension Scheme, those diagnosed can take either a weekly or monthly pension or a one-off payment of £140,000. Most take the payment, knowing they have only a year to live. That has not been increased for nine years. Personal injury lawyers say civilians commonly receive £100,000 more when they make claims against workplaces where they were exposed. Ms Darlison added: 'On top of that, civilian settlements often include provisions that cover for private, often novel or cutting-edge treatments. Military settlements don't include that provision, which is grossly unfair. 'Civilian families can make compensation claims after a loved one has died while, under the War Pension Scheme, families of veterans cannot.' Emma Lewell, Labour MP for South Shields, whose grandfather died from mesothelioma, said: 'It can't be right that those who have served get lesser compensation than civilians. This needs to be looked at urgently.' Former Royal Marine Edward Hill is leading a legal action by 260 ex-Marines against the MoD alleging they were exposed to asbestos during military exercises in Latvia in 2018 and 2019, yet were not allowed to move camp away from it. He said: 'According to my own research, asbestos-related disease kills more veterans than anything after natural causes. 'That veterans aren't treated as well as civilians is a disgrace. The Government harps on quite a lot about the Armed Forces Covenant, which is supposed to guarantee the welfare of those who have served, but in my experience the Covenant isn't worth the paper it's written on.' Professor Kevin Bampton, chief executive of the British Occupational Hygiene Society, said the Government needed an 'end-to-end strategy' for protecting service personnel from the dangers of asbestos in their homes and in equipment. 'You could reasonably expect a cause of premature deaths for service personnel to be combat injury,' he said. 'You don't expect nine times as many people to die from asbestos-related disease, which is preventable and completely unnecessary.' The MoD said compensation payments to veterans affected by mesothelioma cannot be compared with civilian claims as the standard of proof of exposure required are lower. And while this has not increased, if a War Widow(er) Pension is chosen instead, this increases annually with inflation. 'We take the health and safety of our service personnel and defence employees extremely seriously,' it said.
