It looks like concrete and it can kill a person in one small dose.
A new lethal combination of drugs called “Gray Death” has been linked to overdoses around the country and investigators fear it could be making its way to South Florida.
“If I did a little bit more than I did, I would’ve died,’ said 19 year old Madison Smith.
She spoke to the NBC 6 Investigators while in a detox program.
Smith started out experimenting with pills and alcohol at a young age. Last month, while on the west coast of Florida near Tampa, she decided to experiment with something much stronger.
“We decided to buy a 40 dollar bag of heroin,” said Smith.
She thought it was heroin. It wasn’t. She believes what she took was a combination of Gray Death.
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“It was kind of light gray, I have never done it before so I didn’t know too much, I just did a tiny bump of my pinky.” That tiny bump almost killed her.
“It’s hard to explain,” Smith said. “My legs and my arms kind of felt like noodles, I’ve never taken a drug that has made me feel this kind of way,” she said.
Investigators say Gray Death often includes a killer cocktail of opioids: heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil and a synthetic opioid called U-47700.
Police said the lethal combo has been responsible for deaths in Ohio and Georgia. DEA agents in Miami tell the NBC 6 Investigators the drug may have made its way to South Florida. They’re investigating a few possible cases and are having the chemicals tested to find out what exactly is inside. It could take weeks before the results are back.
"It’s not heroin anymore, it’s becoming way more expensive and the synthesized things like Grey Death are becoming a lot cheaper,” said Smith.
Addiction therapists said the drug could be even deadlier.
“Chances are you will overdose immediately,” said Dr. Robin Barnett, an addiction expert at Reawakenings Wellness Center.
In Miami Dade and Broward Counties, 1,037 people died of a drug overdose just last year. And that’s before the new lethal “Gray Death” combo. Many of the overdose cases involve heroin mixed with another drug like fentanyl or carfentanil.
“They are not actually out there seeking it, it’s just showing up in the drugs that they are doing,” said Dr. Barnett.
Madison checked herself into a South Florida Rehab Center.
“I brought myself here, it was by choice,” Smith said.
It’s a choice she’s glad she was able to make.
“It was either come here or died on the street,” Smith said. “And now I feel like I actually have hope.”
