A highly toxic drug has claimed the life of a second person in less than a week, with advocates issuing a dire warning ahead of Schoolies and festival season.

A public health alert circulated by Queensland Health on Wednesday confirmed 5-cyano-isotodesnitazene (isotocyanozene), a rare synthetic opioid, had been detected in a toxicology test and powder sample in south-east Queensland.

The substance was described in the alert as a “novel nitazene only recently detected for the first time in Australia”, with an image showing white powder in a plastic bag labelled opiod F5.

A spokesperson for Queensland Health confirmed the latest alert related to a coronial matter currently under investigation.

It is the second death this month, with a warning issued on Friday after another type of nitaze

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