Urgent health alert issued after discovery of deadly cocktail of drugs dubbed ‘Super Mario’

The state of New York has issued an urgent health alert about a fatal combination of drugs dubbed by officials as, ‘Super Mario’.

The powder consists of fentanyl, which is 100 times more potent than morphine, traces of heroin, carfentanil – a tranquilizer for elephants – and xylazine, a flesh-eating tranquilizer that is becoming increasingly common in the illicit drug supply.

The alert was issued last week after state drug surveillance officials found two bags of ‘Super Mario’ on the street in central New York last month and tested them last week. 

A third sample is currently being tested.

The above graph shows how drug overdose deaths have risen since 2002, when the report began

New York State Department of Health, in partnership with the ACRHealth lab in Syracuse, said: ‘Two samples were tested from bags labeled ‘Super Mario’ and were found to have a combination of fentanyl, xylazine, and trace amounts of heroin and carfentanil—a potent drug considered to be up to 100 times stronger than fentanyl.’

New York state has not announced any deaths directly related to ‘Super Mario.’

Health Commissioner Dr James McDonald said: ‘Carfentenil is a veterinary drug that is no longer marketed because it is so dangerous.

‘The Department partners with community programs that provide access to drug checking so these dangerous substances are identified before they are used by a person who uses drugs and risks overdose.’

Over 6,300 New Yorkers died of a fentanyl overdose in 2023, and around 80,000 die annually in the US from abusing the drug.

Fentanyl is about 50 times more potent than heroin, and a tiny dose is enough to kill.

Carfentanil has become more and more common as well. The Drug Enforcement Administration warned the public about it over eight years ago.

The above shows a person on the streets of San Francisco, which has seen a surge in drug overdoses

DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg said in 2016: ‘Carfentanil is surfacing in more and more communities

‘We see it on the streets, often disguised as heroin. It is crazy dangerous. Synthetics such as fentanyl and carfentanil can kill you. I hope our first responders – and the public – will read and heed our health and safety warning.’

Xylazine is a tranquilizer that veterinarians use and is not approved for human use. 

It has been known to cause blackouts and severe lesions. It eats away at skin tissues because it blocks blood flow through blood vessels.

All of the drugs in ‘Super Mario’ massively depress the respiratory system, slowing breathing to dangerously low levels or stopping it altogether. 

The combination also leads to sedation, in which case the person will be unaware of their breathing trouble, compounding the risk of death. 

An estimated 108,000 Americans overdosed and died in 2022, the last year for which data is available. 

Deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone (primarily fentanyl) continued to rise with 73,838 overdose deaths reported in 2022 over previous years.