SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - A central Illinois county coroner has found a tranquilizer used on elephants and other large animals in the blood of two recent drug-overdose victims.
The drug is carfentanil . The federal Drug Enforcement Administration says it is 10,000 times more potent than morphine.
Sangamon County Coroner Cinda Edwards says toxicology tests from a 63-year-old man who died in March and a 34-year-old man who died this month showed a mix of carfentanil and heroin.
That makes 18 opiate-overdose deaths this year in the Springfield area. Twenty-three died last year and 41 in 2015.
Edwards says the number dropped in part because more emergency responders carry Narcan , which can reverse the effect of an overdose.
She says Narcan is likely ineffective against carfentanil.
