New lethal drug that 'could be the new fentanyl' explained as it's linked to overdose deaths

A new drug known as 'flysky' has already claimed at least two lives over in the US as officials have warned about the dangers of an overdose on illicit substances.

According to CBS it has been used throughout the American city of Pittsburgh and has been found to have caused at least two deaths from overdose.

Officials are trying to warn people that they need to know how lethal the drug is, otherwise there are likely to be more people dead as they gamble with their lives.

It has been compared to fentanyl, that incredibly dangerous drug which even seasoned substance consumers would rather not touch.

Given that there are already more than enough dangerous drugs being sold on the streets, the possibility of flysky becoming more popular is a headache authorities don't need.

Here's everything you need to know.

What is flysky?

While it sounds like a website you'd use to book a holiday on, it's actually a lethal drug made up of heroin laced with medetomidine, which is a tranquiliser used by vets.

Officials in the US have said that medetomidine has 'increasingly been implicated in illicit fentanyl-related overdoses', and that they are finding veterinary sedatives mixed with illegal substances more often.

As such, potentially lethal drugs such as flysky are likely to become more popular as time goes by.

How dangerous is flysky?

Considering it's already killed people, the short answer to that is 'very'.

Flysky already contains heroin, which can be lethal, and medetomidine is not approved for use on humans so that's a double dose of unpleasantness.

Something which increases the level of danger is that medetomidine doesn't respond to naloxone, a treatment which is often referred to by the brand name 'Narcan' and can be used to reverse opioid overdoses.

Fayette County District Attorney Michael Aubele warned: "My understanding is that medetomidine is a drug that is not affected by Narcan.

"So if you overdose on medetomidine, Narcan is not going to save you."

If you were to overdose on flysky assuming that there was something they could give you to make it stop, there isn't.

As such, Aubele has said that in his area people will be able to hand over bags of the drug to the authorities with no questions asked.

Has flysky been found in the UK?

According to the Metro, it thankfully hasn't been found in the UK as Matthew Atha of the Independent Drug Monitoring Unit said he was not aware of flysky circulating in the nation.

He told the paper he would 'consider it very unlikely that this would take off in the UK' when there were other alternatives people were using to mix with heroin.

There have been serious concerns in the UK over substances known as nitazenes, which are thought to be five times stronger than fentanyl and known as 'Frankenstein drugs'.

Between June 2023 and January 2025 the government estimates that around 400 deaths were linked to consumption of nitazenes.

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