Thread: Officials gather to fight deadly fentanyl outbreak

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanlui ... 828029.htm

Posted on Thu, Jun. 15, 2006

Officials gather to fight deadly fentanyl outbreak

BY KIM NORRIS
Detroit Free Press

CHICAGO - Just one hundred and twenty-five micrograms - the equivalent of six grains of salt - is enough fentanyl to kill.

Mix it with heroin or cocaine, and you have a high to die for - literally.

In Pittsburgh, heroin mixed with fentanyl is being marketed on the street under the name "get high or die tryin.'"

In metro Detroit, so far this year, 83 people have died trying.

The seriousness of the spreading threat drew more than 125 law enforcement officials, scientists, public health officials and emergency first responders from seven cities and Mexico to Chicago on Wednesday and Thursday to learn about the potentially lethal painkiller and where it's coming from. Even Scott Burns, deputy drug czar, in the Bush administration was on hand.

"This is a serious drug," said Timothy Ogden, Drug Enforcement Administration associate special agent,

He held up a little plastic bag in which tiny particles of powder were barely visible.

"This is enough fentanyl to kill you, " he said.

"In my 30 years of drug enforcement work, I haven't seen a threat that bothers me as much," Ogden said.

He likened the use of illegal drugs to playing Russian roulette with a single bullet, but with fentanyl, he said, "It's like playing Russian roulette with six bullets in the gun."

The fentanyl being mixed with street drugs most likely was manufactured in multiple clandestine labs, possibly in Mexico, Ogden said Thursday.

This outbreak is more widespread than previous ones, he said. "It appears there may be independent distributors operating in different cities," he added.

Chicago has had an explosion of drug overdose cases in the last two months, many in people taking heroin laced with fentanyl. The city has had 60 deaths in about a year.

Detroit experienced a similar increase, but in a much more concentrated period of time. And, unlike in Chicago, where people are surviving the overdoses, most of the known fentanyl cases in Detroit have been dead on arrival.

Fentanyl is a synthetically manufactured pain medication that is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. In its legally prescribed form, it typically is administered through a patch, an oral lozenge or through injections. It often is prescribed to cancer patients.

Although the number of suspected drug deaths has fallen back to more normal levels in the past two weeks in metro Detroit, fentanyl-laced heroin has been popping up in more and more cities, with similar deadly results. And a lull does not indicate the problem is past, authorities said.

"There's always a concern when the drug is being manufactured that it can come back at any time, especially if it's being manufactured in the states," said James Tolbert, commander of the organized crime division for the Detroit Police Department, who attended the conference.

"That's why we're cooperating with all our local folks and the people here, to try to determine where the source is."

John Arvanitis, assistant special agent in charge of the Detroit field division of the DEA, said the most important thing that came out of the conference, was "the realization of the magnitude of the situation.

"That will facilitate coordination among state, local and federal authorities in a national effort to disrupt and dismantle the organization s involved in this, " he said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... lnorth-hed

Police plan fentanyl fight
Joint effort targets Mexican suppliers

By David Heinzmann and Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporters
Published June 16, 2006


At the end of a two-day conference on the painkiller fentanyl, police and federal drug investigators said they are better informed about the growing crisis and are aggressively working to cut off the Mexican supply of the drug, which has tainted the U.S. heroin market and killed hundreds of people.

Chicago police and Drug Enforcement Administration officials held the summit in the DEA's office here Wednesday and Thursday in order to bring together investigators, scientists and public health officials working on the problem around the country.

Officials are calling the emerging fentanyl problem a crisis that has become larger than they anticipated, and they felt a need to raise awareness and understanding, as well as coordinate their work pursuing the traffickers pushing the drug to heroin users.

"We fully intend to engage in a coordinated effort to identify people who are engaged in manufacturing fentanyl illegally and clandestinely, and we're going to aggressively pursue them," said Tim Ogden, associate special agent in charge of the DEA's Chicago field office.

Police and DEA agents attended from Detroit, Newark, Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Diego and Los Angeles and several other cities. More than 125 people attended the conference, and organizers said the turnout demonstrates the urgency of the problem.

"Law enforcement officials talk on a regular basis, but this conference has added another dimension to the communication process," Chicago Police Supt. Philip Cline said. "We have developed a network of law enforcement agencies, health officials, EMS agencies, and chemists to share knowledge and information when a crisis of crime hits, like it has here."

Of the 64 people who have died in fentanyl-related overdoses in Cook County over the last year, 20 had pure fentanyl in their bodies, said Frank Limon, chief of the Chicago Police Department's organized crime division. The others had fentanyl mixed with heroin or other drugs.

In addition to chasing the drug traffickers, leaders said, they plan to push a public awareness campaign that would include outreach to drug prevention professionals.

"We're going to collaborate in a similar event with the treatment and prevention people. We're very concerned about this threat, and we're actively and aggressively pursuing it," Ogden said.

In Chicago, police have arrested more than 100 street-level drug dealers in hopes to develop information about the wholesale suppliers. Investigators are also trying to determine whether the drug is being produced by more than one lab in Mexico. Federal investigators are currently testing seized samples of fentanyl to see whether they were produced at a Mexican lab that Mexican and U.S. investigators shut down recently.

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dheinzmann@tribune.com

jcoen@tribune.com