Officials in Louisiana are warning people to stay away from ‘grey death’, a lethal drug that is 10,000 times more potent than morphine.

The drug, which first surfaced in the United States in 2017, is a dangerous combination of some of the most deadly opioids, including heroin, fentanyl, and various fentanyl analogues, according to Investigators.

Police say it looks like concrete and varies in consistency from hard, chunky material to a fine powder.

They also blamed the deadly drug for thousands of fatal overdoses nationally, including heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil sometimes used to tranquillize large animals like elephants and a synthetic opioid called U-47700.

Deputies from St Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office discovered the substance during an arrest last week.

The authorities also shared photos of the drug they confiscated from suspects who were travelling across St Mary Parish from the Lake Charles area.

“A minuscule amount of this drug can kill,’ the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

“The public is advised to never pick up or touch this drug if you ever encounter it and to call and report it to law enforcement,” police said.

“Gray death is one of the scariest combinations that I have ever seen in nearly 20 years of forensic chemistry drug analysis,’ Deneen Kilcrease, manager of the chemistry section at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said.

“The drug’s ingredients and their concentrations are unknown to users, making it particularly lethal, Kilcrease said. ‘And because these strong drugs can be absorbed through the skin, simply touching the powder puts users at risk,” she added.