Heroin cut with ELEPHANT tranquilizer 10,000 times more powerful than morphine blamed for 80 overdoses across Ohio and Indiana in the last two days

Authorities in Ohio and Indiana are coping with an abnormal spike in the number of cases of heroin overdose.

In Cincinnati alone, there have been an estimated 80 heroin overdoses - three of them fatal - in the last two days – and a total 174 suspected overdoses in the last week.

According to Fox News, authorities in the Queen City believe that people are mixing heroin with a powerful sedative used on elephants, which is 10,000 times more potent than morphine. 

Health officials in Hamilton County say that the spike in overdose cases has devolved into a full-blown crisis, with emergency rooms being overwhelmed with new patients

The drug, carfentanil, is being mixed with heroin, causing an estimated 174 overdoses in just one week, according to Cincinnati authorities. Carfentanil is considered 100 times more powerful than fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid prescribed to patients recovering from surgery. 

Meanwhile, in Indianapolis, a 'supercharged' form of heroin is believed to contain a potentially deadly cocktail that includes fentanyl.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has warned that fentanyl is 50 times more powerful than heroin, according to USA Today. The effect is a much more intense high, but too much can send a user to the emergency room.