New, unpredictable drug spreads in Estonia

Estonian police have voiced concern over the spread of the life-threatening drug of isotonitazene in the northern and eastern parts of the Baltic country, Estonian public broadcaster ERR reports.
Police told ETV’s programme Aktuaalne kaamera that the drug, often colloquially known as ISO is an opioid even stronger than the more widely known fentanyl. Police also pointed out that isotonitazene enters Estonia from neighbouring Latvia.
Read also: Police to commence criminal prosecution of a man for lethal hit and run in Pļavnieki
«Fentanyl-like substances are extremely toxic and their [safe] dosing requires, as it were, a dispensing pharmacist’s precision; it is very easy for users to lose track there,» said Rait Pikaro, who is the drug squad chief of the Esonian Police and Border Guard Board’s northern prefecture. He added that the substance is taken by injection and is even more toxic than fentanyl.
According to the police representative: «The health consequences of concomitant use are completely unexpected and unforeseen. If the help is not taken immediately, overdose death is a completely possible outcome». Not less than ten of the 40 drug overdose deaths in Estonia have been the result of fentanyl and Isotonitazene use, ERR reports.