How is it possible that we’ve gotten to this point? Drug addicts who can’t get high enough on the human drugs available are now turning — in some cases — to the sedatives used on elephants and other large animals.

This is called desperation, illness, and addiction.

“I thought I was dying,” said one detective. “It felt like my body was shutting down.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration has issued a revised warning to both the general public and first responders about carfentanil, a drug that is 100 times more potent than the fentanyl already aggravating the country’s heroin troubles. The drug is suspected in an increasing number of overdoses nationwide — it’s being mixed with or passed off as heroin.

Those who purposely take the drug aren’t the only ones putting their lives on the line — it’s a danger to anyone who may come into even casual contact with it.

“Carfentanil is surfacing in more and more communities,” said DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg. “We see it on the streets, often disguised as heroin. It is crazy dangerous. Synthetics such as fentanyl and carfentanil can kill you. I hope our first responders — and the public — will read and heed our health and safety warning. These men and women have remarkably difficult jobs and we need them to be well and healthy.”

Two Atlantic County, New Jersey, detectives recently exposed to a very small amount of fentanyl when simply sealing a piece of evidence were asked to share their experience in a new outreach ad to other first responders. “I thought that was it,” said one detective. “I thought I was dying. It felt like my body was shutting down.”

Related: Questioning ‘Safe Spaces’ for Addicts

The DEA is advising first responders to skip any drug testing at the scene, and to remember the potential harm to police canines during the course of their duties. “Don’t field test it in your car, or on the street, or take it back to the office. Transport it directly to a laboratory, where it can be safely handled and tested.”

[lz_ndn video=31366664]

Each time authorities start to get a handle on one type of drug — another seems to pop up, Joseph Pinjuh, chief of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and narcotics unit for the U.S. attorney in Cleveland, told the Detroit Free Press.

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“You feel like a kid with his finger in the dike, you know?” he said. “We’re running out of fingers.”

[lz_bulleted_list title=”The Crazy Power of Carfentanil” source=”http://www.dea.gov”]It’s a synthetic opioid that is 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl — which itself is 50 times more potent than heroin. [/lz_bulleted_list]

Hospitals in the Cleveland area have seen more than a dozen overdoses a day since carfentanil was found in the area’s heroin supply about two months ago, the Detroit Free Press reported. And over one six-day span last month, there were 174 overdoses reported between two counties.

Nationwide, first responders are seeing a similar impact. Carfentanil is now linked to a significant number of overdose deaths throughout the country.

“They know that’s the high that’ll take you right up to the edge,” Pinjuh told the Free Press. “That’s the high they want.”

But it may be a user’s last.

Related: Your Deadly Medicine Cabinet

Carfentanil is used as a tranquilizing agent for elephants and other large mammals. Even one drop into a person’s eye or nose could be fatal, according to the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians. Naloxone, which has the potential to revive overdose victims on any number of other substances being abused nationwide, may not be enough with this one.