Tag: fentanyl epidemic

Officer’s Fatal Overdose Prompts Question About Drug Screenings For Cops

The fatal overdose of an officer in Maine have many wondering how his drug use went undetected by the department.

The fentanyl overdose death of a police officer in Maine has sparked inquiry into the drug testing policies of police departments across the state. How could Nicholas Meserve’s drug problem have gone undetected?

The 34-year-old Lewiston police officer died of acute fentanyl intoxication on February 8, according to the state medical examiner.

“I was kind of shocked,” said John Rogers, director of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. “I’d never seen that in my time here as a director, where you have an officer who dies of an overdose because he has a drug problem.”

A report by the Portland Press Herald revealed that universal drug-testing policies are not the standard, but an exception in Maine.

Only one town, Baileyville, does pre-employment drug testing, testing with probable cause and random testing. Only two others, Houlton Police and the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office also conduct pre-employment drug screenings.

In Portland, prospective police officers must complete a questionnaire on past drug use as part of the department’s rigorous hiring process. They must also undergo psychological testing and a polygraph exam. Any red flags raised in the process are investigated further, said acting Portland Police Chief Vern Malloch.

Malloch gives a detailed overview of the Portland Police Department’s policy regarding officers’ behavior. Once they are hired, they are subject to performance reviews. Their patterns of behavior are monitored with data to detect any irregularities.

And if there is a problem, officers have the option to seek help with an employee assistance program or a peer support system. Malloch says the department has helped officers get help for their depression and alcoholism.

“The last thing we want to do is discourage employees from coming forward because (they think) it will cost them their job,” said Malloch. “We want employees to come forward so we can address it adequately and get the person well so they can return to being a productive officer.”

Typically, alcohol abuse is the “more common” issue among police, says John Rogers. Between 2008-2016, the Maine Criminal Justice Academy board saw 25 cases of drug-involved criminal conduct or past actions by police or corrections officers, the Press Herald reported. In that same period, the board saw 69 alcohol cases, many of them for operating under the influence.

As a result of Meserve’s untimely death, Lewiston Police Chief Brian T. O’Malley said the city is working with the police unions to establish a drug-testing policy so that another officer with a drug problem may not go undetected.

As the Press Herald reports, Lewiston does offer an employee assistance program and peer support team for officers in need. They also track each officer’s use of force, how much sick time is used, job performance evaluations and complaints from the public.

Meserve’s record made no indication that he was struggling with drug use, O’Malley said.

View the original article at thefix.com

10 May 2019
Dramatic Rise In Fentanyl Deaths Marks Third Wave Of Opioid Crisis

From 2011 to 2016, Black Americans experienced the sharpest rise in fentanyl-related deaths with a 141% increase.

Fentanyl overdose rates have been rising at very sharp rates among minorities, including African Americans and Hispanic Americans, according to new data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The data looked at fentanyl overdose rates between 2011 and 2016. Researchers found that the fentanyl overdose rate for African Americans rose the fastest out of any ethnic group—increasing, on average, 141% each year.

Hispanic Americans also showed a dramatic increase of 118% each year. Non-Hispanic whites saw their rates of fentanyl overdoses increase 61% each year, on average.

African Americans and Hispanic Americans still have lower overdose rates overall—5.6 and 2.5 deaths per 100,000 respectively. Whites, by comparison, continue to have the highest fentanyl overdose rates at 7.7 deaths per 100,000.

However, lead study author, Merianne Rose Spencer, said it’s important to note that the overdose rate for Black Americans is rising at more than double the rate of white Americans, according to The Washington Post.

Overall, the data showed shocking increases in fentanyl overdoses in all demographics.

“Beginning in the fourth quarter of 2013, the number of deaths increased every quarter. From 2013 through 2014, the death rate more than doubled, nearly doubled again from 2014 through 2015, and more than doubled again from 2015 through 2016,” report authors wrote.

The CDC’s mortality statistics branch’s chief, Robert Anderson, said that the severity of the fentanyl overdose crisis is clear. “We’re seeing it across the board,” he said.

The rate of overdose accelerated in 2014, when, according to Ohio Senator Rob Portman, fentanyl “came on with a vengeance.” “We were making progress, starting to get this stuff in the right direction, and the fentanyl just overwhelmed the systems,” he said this week.

Although the recently released data didn’t cover 2017 or 2018, there are indications that the pace of increase of overdoses has slowed in the last two years. Preliminary numbers show that 70,424 died by August of 2018, compared with 72,287 deaths by November of 2017.

Anderson said the numbers suggest that the rate has plateaued, but is not yet truly reversing. “We would look at that and say that’s pretty flat. We’d be reluctant to call it a real decline,” he said.

Still, Portman said that the numbers show a step in the right direction, particularly after a long period of dramatic increases.

“It is a very significant story that for the first time in eight years we’re not seeing an increase in overdose deaths,” he said. “We feel like it’s still unacceptably high, but we’re cautiously optimistic that we’ve finally turned the corner after eight years.”

View the original article at thefix.com

22 March 2019
Obama Administration Failed To Act On Fentanyl Crisis

Health experts reportedly urged the administration to declare a public health emergency during the drug’s rise in 2016.

The Obama administration was warned about the spiking rates of fentanyl overdoses in 2016 but took no action, according to a report in The Washington Post.

A group of 11 national health experts pleaded with high-level officials in the administration in an urgent letter to declare a public health emergency in response to the influx of new, extremely potent opioids on the illicit drug market. The letter addressed then-President Obama’s appointed drug czar and the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“The fentanyl crisis represents an extraordinary public health challenge—and requires an extraordinary public health response,” it read.

The opioid epidemic had been ramping up for years, but new policies cracking down on the over-prescription of drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin could not properly combat the scourge of illegal fentanyl that was being shipped into the country from Mexico and China.

Cities were now contending with mass overdose cases as street heroin became contaminated with fentanyl, making it many times more potent.

The administration declined to act, according to the Post.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more powerful than heroin and is largely responsible for the spikes in overdose deaths from 2015 to 2017 that shocked the nation. In 2017, fentanyl was involved in nearly as many overdose deaths as heroin and prescription opioids combined.

While the Obama administration did take some steps to address the increasing threat of opioids in 2016 and early 2017, any news over the dire warnings about the drugs was overshadowed by the unexpected results of the 2016 presidential election.

By this time, fentanyl overdose rates had risen by 800% in the state of Maryland over the space of four years.

In 2017, President Donald Trump declared the long-overdue national health emergency over the still-raging opioid epidemic. However, other than making the declaration, the Trump administration has taken little action on the problem, according to a 2018 report by the Government Accountability Office.

While the CDC has issued new guidelines for prescribing opioid painkillers like OxyContin and increased funding for addiction treatment is beginning to see positive results, local police and hospitals are still struggling to cope with overdose cases caused by fentanyl.

Unfortunately, those hit hardest by fentanyl are those with addiction disorders and chronic pain patients—many of whom turned to heroin as prescription opioids became harder to access as the government cracked down on opioids. The stigma of addiction has stood in the way of many individuals who need treatment.

Luke J. Nasta, executive director of the largest drug treatment facility on Staten Island, compared it to the AIDS epidemic of the ’80s.

“There was a stigma about being gay,” he said. “There is also a stigma about being addicted to drugs. The entire society is suffering and the government can’t seem to get their arms around this epidemic.”

View the original article at thefix.com

22 March 2019
Fentanyl Use Rising Across The US

The potent synthetic opioid has been showing up more on its own, rather than mixed with other drugs.

The use of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid said to be 50 times as potent as heroin, is growing on both a local and national level, according to new research.

A new analysis, conducted by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) researchers, found that fentanyl was present in nearly 50% of overdose deaths in Marion County, Indiana in 2017. This is a significant increase compared to less than a decade prior, when fentanyl was present in fewer than 15% of overdose deaths.

“We found fentanyl present in 47% of cases,” said Brad Ray, assistant professor at IUPUI’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs. “That’s nearly half of every single person that dies of a drug overdose. That’s far outpaced heroin.”

These numbers mirror national statistics. In May, the Journal of the American Medical Association published research that showed that of the 42,249 opioid-related deaths in the United States in 2016, almost 46% involved fentanyl. Six years prior—similar to the IUPUI research—fentanyl was involved in just 14% of opioid-related deaths.

The IUPUI research also found that over time, the potent opioid has been showing up more on its own, rather than mixed with other drugs, according to the Indy Star. When fentanyl first emerged as a threat to public health, it was said primarily to be used to boost the potency of heroin and other drugs.

A previous study by IUPUI’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs from 2017 reported an association between tighter opioid restrictions and an increase in opioid-related deaths.

Researchers looked at prescription data from Indiana’s prescription drug monitoring program and analyzed that alongside toxicology data from the Marion County Coroner’s office, which tracks the specific substances involved in each drug-related death. With that, they found an “alarming trend”: the prescription drug crackdown occurred alongside a “considerable” rise in heroin and fentanyl overdoses.

“As people move away from pills, they do move on to heroin,” explained Ray, who was the lead author of that study. “It’s a cheaper substance to purchase but it’s much more dangerous because you don’t know what’s in it, you don’t know how much to take.”

Ray went on to say that a lack of treatment options in Indiana exacerbates the issue.

View the original article at thefix.com

5 July 2018