synthetic drug

Martin Raithelhuber, an illicit synthetic drug expert from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said the BBC’s findings were a “very worrying development”.

The synthetic drug is the leading culprit in the U.S. opioid epidemic.

The synthetic drug lowers breathing and heart rate to dangerously low levels and can cause large open skin wounds, which have led to it being dubbed a "flesh-eating zombie drug".

The force said spice, another synthetic drug, had been identified in two of the four deaths.

“Our governments will continue to work together to attack the fentanyl and synthetic drug epidemic that is killing so many people in our homelands and globally, and to bring to justice the criminals and organizations producing, smuggling, and selling these lethal poisons in both of our countries,” Biden said.