Governor Matt Bevin has issued an emergency administrative regulation to place a synthetic opioid known as U-47-700 a Schedule 1 controlled substances and subject to criminal penalties.
The ‘E-Reg’ also allows Cabinet for Health and Family Services to automatically place other synthetic drugs on the Federal register in the same class of Kentucky regulation. U-47-700 has a chemical compound similar to opioid painkillers.
It is now in the same drug class as heroin, acetylfentanyl and other drugs that have no accepted medical use and a high potential of abuse.
Kentucky authorities say they’re starting to see signs of the drug in recent investigations of overdoses.
Overdose deaths are the leading cause of accidental deaths in Kentucky, now surpassing car crashes, and mostly involve the abuse of legal painkillers and a growing heroin epidemic.
