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Drug dealers mixing heroin with elephant tranquilizer drug

Posted at 5:09 AM, Sep 16, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-16 10:38:35-04

Heroin is responsible for hundreds of overdoses in Michigan every year. But now – it’s being mixed with another opioid authorities fear will make that death toll even higher. 

Apparently, drug dealers are mixing in elephant tranquilizer. It's 10,000 times stronger than morphine and can safely put a 10,000 pound elephant to sleep. But for a human, combined with heroin, it's deadly.

The Kent County Sheriff's Office believes the cocktail caused a west Michigan woman to overdose and die. They seized a powder they believe included both heroin and carfentanil – a powerful opioid used as elephant tranquilizer -  in two separate cases.

Police say drug dealers are using it to stretch their heroin supply and intensify the high.