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Russia I: Theater Gas Was Probably Powerful Narcotic, Experts Say The gas used in the Oct. 26 Moscow theater raid — said by Russia to be fentanyl — more likely was a fentanyl derivative called carfentanil, a powerful narcotic usually used to subdue large animals, the Washington Post reported Saturday (see GSN, Oct. 30). Carfentanil is 8,000 times as powerful as morphine, is relatively safe to use and would disperse easily in a large space. “It was the safest drug that you could have used in this fashion and hope to have high percentage of survivors,” said Theodore Stanley, a University of Utah professor of anesthesiology. “The fact that carfentanil is 100 times more potent than fentanyl makes it 100 times easier to use than fentanyl — and that makes it a logical choice,” he added. Tests conducted on two German hostages who survived the raid suggest the aerosol that Russian commandos pumped through the theater’s ventilation system might also have included halothane, a traditional anesthetic (see GSN, Oct. 28). Those same tests failed to detect fentanyl. Carfentanil would not be detected in a test for fentanyl, according to the Post. If halothone was included in the aerosol, the mixture could have been much more dangerous and the effect of the antidote that emergency crews had on hand could have been negated, the Post reported. Fentanyl comes in a solid form, however, and Russian officials may have used halothane to make the substance easier to disperse. “It takes a staggering amount of fentanyl to subdue a patient,” said David Drover, an anesthesiologist at Stanford University. “To actually fill a room, even a small room, would have taken a swimming pool-full. No way,” he added. While many Moscow doctors reported symptoms consistent with an opioid overdose, several patients did not have trouble breathing and presented confusing symptoms, according to Yuri Goldfarb, chief toxicologist at Sklifosovski emergency hospital. “In general, I can conclude a number of symptoms were different than a classic opiate overdose,” Goldfarb said (Brown, Baker, Washington Post, Nov. 9). Meanwhile, Russian hospitals have so far discharged 622 freed hostages and currently continue to treat 39 people, including one child and one foreigner, the Russian Information Agency Novosti reported today (see GSN, Nov. 8; RIA Novosti, Nov. 11).
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