Advanced machines used by county toxicologists which detects thousands more drugs than standard drug tests have found seven new designer drugs never before detected in San Diego, and some never before seen in the U.S.

The tests allow toxicologists to identify drugs purposely designed to go undetected.

In the cases of at least five deaths in the past year, six new synthetic drugs modified to mimic heroin, bath salts, ecstasy and PCP were found.

"A drug thought to be heroin by the user turned out to be much more powerful opioid was called acetylfentany," said San Diego County Medical Examiner Iain McIntyre. "Its about ten times stronger than heroin, and someone who's taking what they think a normal dose of heroin is actually getting a huge overdose."

The machine only takes a small amount of extract from the deceased, then separates drugs based on their chemical nature, McIntyre told NBC 7.

These new drugs are assumed to have been purchased over the internet, causing a problem drug treatment specialists say is difficult to treat and detect in their clients.

"Just a regular drug test over to a lab, for example, they check for alcohol, they check an ETG, they check for benzos, cannabis levels, things like that," said Judy Saalinger from Lasting Recovery.

Saalinger said the average drug test costs about $20.

But to extend the test to detect designer drugs such as spice, the price goes up another $35-40 per drug, per test.

The county is making efforts to warn the public about the use of synthetic drugs in hopes to prevent future deaths.

"You don't know what you're getting," McIntyre said. "You might get a response from a drug you got on the internet, try it again, and this time you might have a different drug altogether."