Drug “several times” stronger than fentanyl linked to California overdose death
The charges filed by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Los Angeles office may be the first U.S. criminal case involving a death involving a synthetic opioid, which may be more dangerous than fentanyl.
On Thursday, federal prosecutors announced the only charge of distributing proton nitrogen in the death of 21-year-old Los Angeles County resident Benjamin Anthony Collins. If convicted, he faces a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison. The most severe penalty for this charge is life in prison.
The DOJ alleges that Collins knowingly sold the pills to a 22-year-old man on April 19, 2024, according to the indictment.
In comparison, fentanyl is 50 times more powerful than heroin. Protonazine is three times more potent than fentanyl.
The young man allegedly consumed some pills in the front seat of his car shortly after purchasing them from Collins. The Justice Department said he died soon after taking the drug. His mother found him dead in a parked car outside her home.
The Center for Forensic Science Research and Education believes this novel opioid has previously entered the North American illicit drug market May 2021. The Justice Department believes this is the first criminal case in the country involving a death caused by protonic nitrogen.
Opioid overdose deaths have fallen to their lowest level in three years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. but remain above pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels.
Provisional data from the agency show that 75,091 people died from opioid overdoses in the United States in the year to April. Last summer, the estimated annual death toll in the United States exceeded 86,000.
Before the pandemic, there were fewer than 50,000 drug overdose deaths each year.
