LINCOLN, Ill. (WAND) – Police say they’ve spotted a deadly drug in central Illinois.
The Lincoln and Pekin police departments say someone shipped a drug called “purple heroin” from China to the United States and Mexico. Police say it is lethal if it gets absorbed into the skin because it contains fentanyl, a synthetic opioid painkiller.
Officers say it should never make contact with human skin.
Fentanyl can be up to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Police say “purple heroin” is named that way because it turns purple in a syringe.
Officers are warning people to get help if they come across this or another type of heroin. Lincoln police posted a list of possible treatment centers with their heroin warning, should anyone need help with a drug problem.
