Warning after dark web pill death

The parents of a teenage Melbourne tradie are raising the alarm about purchasing medicine online after their son’s overdose death on a synthetic opioid.

Jetson Gordon, 18, died in April 2022 after an overdose of what he thought was oxycodone, but was actually laced with a dangerous, potent synthetic opioid called nitazene.

Mr Gordon brought the pills on the dark web and his parents later found the package in his bedroom.

The health authorities in multiple Australian states have issued alerts about various types of nitazenes in recent years, in cases where the potent substances have been sold as or cut into MDMA, ketamine, and meth, as well as heroin or pills sold illegally as actual prescription opioids.

Mr Gordon’s parents told the ABC their son “had an unfortunate experience around pharmaceuticals and prescribed medication”, so he decided to purchase oxycodone on the dark web.

The 18-year-old was enjoying his carpentry apprenticeship but stressed about living out of home for the first time, his parents said, having moved from regional New South Wales to Melbourne.

“It’s completely rocked us to our core … it’s life-changing,” his stepmother Emily Berry said.

“I don’t think he knew of any risks in doing it or he wouldn’t have done it,” she said.

Nitazenes are regularly tens-of-times more potent than fentanyl, and hundreds-times the strength of morphine. This dramatically increases the chances of the user becoming unconscious and stopping breathing.

Doctors found Mr Gordon died from n-pyrrolidino etonitazene toxicity, ABC reported.

After Mr Gordon’s flatmates found him dead, the young man’s parents found a package from the UK in his bedroom; there were 24 pills inside, and half a pill in his bed.

The pills were stamped with an “M”, as some legally-produced oxycodone is.

British authorities say nitazenes are being made in China and shipped through the UK.

The Gordon family says authorities have told them it will be impossible to trace the dark web pills.

Australian Federal Police Commander Paula Hudson has previously said nitazenes were never approved for medical use because of the high potency.

“We are warning the community that there is no such thing as a safe dosage when it comes to this drug,” Commander Hudson said.

Fentanyl strips do not detect nitazenes. But opioid-reversing naloxone is effective. The class of synthetic opioids came onto the radar of European and US authorities in 2019, but they were originally developed in the 1950s.

Health authorities started seeing nitazenes in Australia in 2021.

Victoria, New South Wales, the ACT, Queensland and South Australian have issued multiple health alerts for various types of nitazenes since 2022.