SYDNEY, June 20 (Xinhua) -- While there have never been any official reports of illegal substance Krokodil in Australia, one health expert on Thursday claimed the devastating drug is already on the streets.
Often referred to as the world's most dangerous street drug, Krokodil gets its name because it can cause severe ulcers and make a user's skin appear scaly like a crocodile.
A senior research fellow at Charles Sturt University and the national research manager for not-for-profit drug and alcohol support network Lives Lived Well, Julaine Allan said in an article for The Conversation on Thursday, she is aware of at least one case where the drug was used Down Under.
"A young man recently turned up at a rural drug and alcohol service in New South Wales (NSW) State seeking help because of an infection in his arm. He said he had injected the drug Krokodil," she said.
Eight to 10 times stronger than morphine, Krokodil has not been used in medical practice since the 1980s and is predominantly made "at home," in unsterilized conditions using toxic cutting agents like "paint thinner, petrol, the red tips from matches and hydrochloric acid."
"Krokodil is a street name for desomorphine, a semi-synthetic drug that has similar effects to heroin and morphine. It's called semi-synthetic because it is created in a chemical process but it's made primarily from a drug, usually codeine, that comes from the opium poppy," Allan explained.
"The long-term effects can include blood clots, swollen veins, severe tissue damage, skin and muscle infections that cause black or green scaly skin around the injection sites, sleeplessness, exhaustion, physical and psychological dependence, memory loss, speech problems, gangrene and death."
With police, health representatives and a range of drug monitoring programs around the country now on the lookout to stop the spread of the "flesh-eating-zombie drug," Allan said its use is still likely to be extremely isolated in Australia.
"The appearance of Krokodil in rural NSW has probably got more to do with an entrepreneurial drug dealer making up for a shortage of opioids than widespread manufacture and use of the drug."
