PITTSBURGH — The Drug Enforcement Administration has added a designer synthetic opioid called "U-47700" to its list of schedule one controlled substances, which bans it in the United States.
A toxicology test found the drug in R.J. Henney's blood after the University of Pittsburgh student was found dead in his apartment near campus in 2016.
Henney had fought depression and had turned to drugs, including heroin.
"He said it was like God coursing through his veins. He said, ‘It's so amazing you can't imagine.’ He said, 'I'm not going to use it again' but we knew he was going to use it again," said Christine Henney, R.J.'s mother.
U-47700, also known as "pink" or "U-4", is a synthetic opioid that was originally developed by scientists in the United States in the 1970s.
"It was never brought to market because it was too dangerous and there was never a medical need for it," said DEA Assistant Special Agent David Battiste.
Battiste said Chinese laboratories got the formula for U-47700, and created a far more dangerous formula. In 2016, 35 people died over a 12-day stretch from the drug. But that didn't solve the problem, in part because international labs keep an eye on what drugs are banned.
"The chemical companies, once (the drugs) are banned, they try to change algorithms within a drug," said Battiste.
The Henneys said the best way to help in the fight and save lives is through education.
"He overdosed. He wasn't dealing with some guy on the street. This was coming from the internet," Henney said.
Cox Media Group
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