By Wayne Flower, Melbourne Correspondent
12:09 02 Jul 2024, updated 12:09 02 Jul 2024
A mass drug overdose believed to have killed four people at a home in Melbourne could be linked to a deadly new form of cocaine flooding the market.
Michael Hodgkinson, 32, was one of four people discovered in the loungeroom of a unit in the northern suburb of Broadmeadows last week.
Abdul El Sayed, 17, was also killed, along with an as-yet unidentified 37-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman inside the Bicknell Court home.
On Tuesday, the Victorian Department of Health issued a drug alert for cocaine laced with protonitazene, a novel synthetic opioid.
‘There have been recent serious harms in Melbourne associated with a white powder sold as cocaine that contained protonitazene,’ the warning stated.
‘The product appears to produce such as loss of consciousness, respiratory depression, and life-threatening hypoxia (insufficient oxygen for normal functioning).’
A Victoria Police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia detectives are continuing to investigate the Broadmeadows tragedy, with forensic results not expected back for several weeks.
Last week, police were seen entering the property with the aid of oxygen tanks amid fears the four may have been overcome by some form of gas.
It is understood carbon monoxide poisoning was quickly ruled out because of the survival of a dog which had been in the house.
Abdul’s uncle Cory Lewis also told Daily Mail Australia he believed his nephew had perished from some sort of drug overdose.
Mr Lewis had been first on the gruesome scene, reporting the incident to police.
‘I went straight in there and I didn’t smell anything,’ Cory said.
The health department warned the new type of cocaine could produce strong effects in very small amounts.
‘Protonitazene has a potency of over 100 times that of heroin,’ the warning stated.
‘Cocaine produces stimulant effects, whereas protonitazene produces sedative effects and may lead to opioid overdose.
‘Using protonitazene with depressants such as alcohol, GHB or depressant drugs (such as Xanax or Valium) increases the risk of overdose.’
It further stated respiratory depression also appears more quickly with novel synthetic opioids.
Taking protonitazene with alcohol or other prescription drugs such as Xanax or Valium can also increase the risk of an overdose.
Protonitazene has previously been linked by health officials to overdoses in Victoria and interstate, including a fatality in South Australia.
Authorities there warned it was being mixed with other drugs, making it hard to identify where it had come from.
Last week, Victoria Police Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said police were investigating the possibility the Broadmeadows deaths were all related to an overdose.
‘It is unusual to find four people deceased at the one property potentially from a drug overdose, but we’ve got to keep an open mind and until we confirm that’s the case, it could be anything,’ Detective Inspector Thomas said.
‘I cannot say definitively whether (fentanyl) is involved,’ he added.
Police are treating the deaths as non-suspicious at this stage of the investigation, but are believed to be very interested in where the deceased sourced the drugs they suspect killed them.
‘We keep an open mind as to what the cause of death is at this stage,’ Mr Thomas said.
The deaths coincided with a Victorian government announcement declaring it would introduce drug checking, after 46 overdose deaths due to novel synthetic opioids since 2022.
The initiative will see a mobile drug checking service established to attend up to 10 music festivals, with a fixed site expected to open in an inner Melbourne area next year.
Both the mobile and fixed-site services will be able to test the makeup of most pills, capsules, powders, crystals and liquids to identify deadly substances, including synthetic drugs.
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