“It’s been going on for some period of time, that it’s being sold and advertised as China White, but it is actually fentanyl,” said Agents Supervisor Matt Cashman of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency. “We are seeing a large uptick in fentanyl-related cases.”

Fentanyl is 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin. A Maine Attorney General’s Office report issued earlier this month said that nonpharmaceutical fentanyl is being sold on the streets as a white powder and represented as heroin.

“It’s a danger to the users, but it’s also a danger to law enforcement,” Cashman said. “We have to update our protocols for handling these substances and we are making local law enforcement aware of the dangers of fentanyl.”

The Maine Attorney General’s report tagged 2014 as the worst year on record statewide for drug overdoses, up 18 percent from 2013 to 208 deaths.

It largely blamed the increase on heroin, morphine and deaths due to fentanyl used by itself or in combination with other drugs.

Fentanyl-related deaths spiked in 2014, going from nine deaths in 2013 to 43 in 2014.