Two powerful drugs now adding to US overdose crisis

NEW YORK (AP) — Emerging reports show that two little-known drugs are making lethal new contributions to America’s drug overdose crisis. Officials say the two drugs are being seen more often by medical examiners looking into overdose deaths. Often they are taken with — or mixed with — illicit fentanyl. That drug is mainly responsible for the more than 100,000 U.S. deaths reported in the last year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday published a report about the appearance of the two new drugs in the Knoxville, Tennessee, area. They have also been seen elsewhere in the U.S. The drugs are called para-fluorofentanyl and metonitazene.