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Tag: synthetic opioids

  • Alleged Drug Dealer Indicted For Fentanyl Overdose Death

    Alleged Drug Dealer Indicted For Fentanyl Overdose Death

    Calvin Warren Jr. is the first person to be arrested and charged under a new Florida law.

    A new Florida law regarding the prosecution of drug dealers, signed by Gov. Rick Scott in 2017, has gone into effect. The law expanded the state’s first-degree murder code to include adults who sell a lethal dose of fentanyl.

    The Palm Beach Post reported that Calvin Warren Jr., 35, was arrested on first-degree murder charges in the overdose death of 36-year-old Thomas Matuseski. Warren is the first person to be arrested and charged under the new law.

    Thomas Matuseski died on January 28 after ingesting fentanyl; Warren is accused of providing the deadly drug. Warren remains in the Palm Beach County Jail without the possibility of parole. The indictment against him states that he caused Matuseski’s death “unlawfully from a premeditated design.”

    The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office announced that Warren distributed heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl. On January 28, Matuseski’s roommate found him collapsed on his bedroom floor in Boynton Beach, according to city police records. Matuseski’s friend called 911 but the Boynton rescue crews were unable to resuscitate him.

    Police reported no sign of drugs or paraphernalia in Matuseski’s home on Citrus Park Lane, and it was not announced how Warren was suspected to be linked to Matuseski’s death. Police records do show that Warren was arrested in February on a case that remains open and includes multiple drug-related charges.

    Greg Newburn, Florida’s state policy director for Families Against Mandatory Minimums, told The Daily Beast, “Most deaths we’ve seen since the rise of fentanyl in Florida have been a mixture of heroin and fentanyl.”

    Florida’s new law does not account for the mixture of drugs or if the dealer claims to have known they were using fentanyl. If a drug mixture containing any amount of fentanyl is involved in the drug user’s death, the dealer can be charged with first-degree murder, a charge for which “the only two sentences available are life without parole and the death penalty,” Newburn said.

    “We will aggressively charge drug dealers who spread fentanyl-laced heroin into our community,” Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said in a statement, as reported in The Palm Beach Post. “We will use all tools provided us by the Florida Legislature to hold drug dealers accountable for causing the deaths of others.” 

    Thomas Matuseski was a New York native, and according to his obituary was remembered as a loving father and son who loved sports.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Maryland Funeral Directors: We're The "Last Responders" To Opioid Crisis

    Maryland Funeral Directors: We're The "Last Responders" To Opioid Crisis

    Funeral directors in the state claim that safety has become an issue when dealing with opioid overdose victims. 

    Proactive funeral directors in Maryland are stocking up on naloxone, the opioid overdose antidote, as they’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number of opioid-related deaths.

    They’re calling themselves the “last responders” to Maryland’s opioid crisis, the Baltimore Sun reports.

    In 2017, the Tri-County Funeral Directors Association launched an awareness campaign in local newspapers to notify communities that “We Don’t Want Your Business” when it comes to opioid abuse.

    “We see a side of this tragic epidemic that many don’t see,” said association president James Schwartz. “The devastation families are facing is heartbreaking.”

    Schwartz tells the Baltimore Sun that other funeral home directors have known not only family members, but funeral home guests “who have come and had either an opioid reaction in the parking lot or other areas during the service time.” 

    “This has caused the folks stress because not only are they grieving this person and now somebody else is having the same tragic result,” Schwartz said.

    The National Funeral Directors Association urges members to protect themselves while handling deceased victims of opioid overdose.

    “Coming into contact with a minuscule dose of fentanyl or carfentanil can be fatal,” the association warns. (This point is oft-repeated, but harm reduction and addiction/recovery advocates say it’s merely a harmful myth.)

    “The opioid crisis presents unique challenges for funeral directors, from working with families whose loved one has died from an overdose to protecting themselves from harm when handling the body of an overdose victim during removal or embalming,” says the funeral directors association.

    In 2017, opioid overdose deaths continued to climb in Maryland, accounting for the majority of drug/alcohol-related deaths—2,009 of 2,282 overdoses were opioid-related, according to the state’s Department of Health.

    “This is an escalating epidemic,” said Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, whose city saw the worst of the opioid crisis. “But still we don’t even see the peak of this epidemic yet.”

    In response, Maryland schools and libraries are also stocking up on naloxone. “The rule of thumb is: when in doubt, use it,” said funeral director Jeffrey L. Gair.

    The antidote is there “if there’s ever the need while we’re on duty at the funeral home,” Gair said.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Narcan Creator Working On Fentanyl "Antidote"

    Narcan Creator Working On Fentanyl "Antidote"

    The new formulation is reportedly five times stronger than Narcan and will last longer. 

    A stronger formulation of Narcan (naloxone) nasal spray, the opioid overdose antidote, is in the works, FOX Business reports. There’s a need for a stronger antidote, its developers say, to counter the rising use of fentanyl.

    Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid pain reliever said to be 50-100 times more potent than morphine. Though it is a pharmaceutical drug, illicitly-made fentanyl is said to have fueled rising rates of drug overdose deaths in the United States.

    Narcan nasal spray, which reverses opioid overdose, hit the market in early 2016 after receiving fast-track designation by the Food and Drug Administration. Now first responders, health workers, and laypeople across the U.S. are equipped with Narcan—but in some cases, the otherwise life-saving drug is not enough.

    “Narcan is not the 100% fail safe that people may think it is, it does not always work,” warned police officials in West Fargo, North Dakota, responding to the emergence of acryl fentanyl, a newer, stronger fentanyl analog, last year. These illicitly-made opioids may require multiple doses of Narcan.

    Roger Crystal, the creator of Narcan and CEO of Opiant Pharmaceuticals, is now working with the government to create a new opioid overdose antidote that will match the strength of increasingly potent fentanyl analogs.

    The new formulation, Nasal Nalmefene, will not only be stronger but will last longer. “The reason we think it could have advantages is because nalmefene is a drug itself [and] is stronger than naloxone. It’s five time stronger and it lasts longer,” Crystal told FOX Business.

    According to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fentanyl accounts for a significant portion of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. In 2016, opioids (prescription and illicit) accounted for 42,249 deaths out of total 63,632 drug overdose deaths in the U.S.

    The CDC also reported that “over half of people in 10 states who died of opioid overdoses during the second half of 2016 tested positive for fentanyl.”

    Crystal, who is working with the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, said they are aiming for FDA approval of Nasal Nalmefene by 2020.

    “Compounds like fentanyl, carfentanil and other synthetic opioids act for longer periods of time. The concern is that naloxone’s half-life doesn’t provide sufficient cover to prevailing amounts of fentanyl in the blood,” said Crystal in a past interview.

    Learn how to administer naloxone: How to Reverse an Opioid Overdose with Naloxone.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "Dilbert" Creator Addresses Son’s Apparent Fentanyl Overdose

    "Dilbert" Creator Addresses Son’s Apparent Fentanyl Overdose

    “If you don’t have any personal experience with opioid addiction, it doesn’t look like anything else you’ve ever seen,” Adams said.

    Cartoonist Scott Adams is grieving the loss of his stepson, who died of an apparent fentanyl overdose last weekend. On a live video stream Monday, Adams described the moment he found out about 18-year-old Justin’s death and the path that led his son to his demise.

    “Yesterday I got a call… from my ex-wife who told me that my stepson, the little boy that I raised from the age of two, was dead,” said Adams, better known as the creator of the Dilbert comic strip.

    “He died last night… in his bed from what appears to be a fentanyl overdose. I got to watch my dead, blue, bloated son taken out on a stretcher in front of his mother and biological father.”

    Justin had a fentanyl patch on his arm, Adams said. “Fentanyl probably killed my son yesterday.”

    Justin had struggled with his drug use for years. “We weren’t surprised, because he’d had a long battle with addiction since he was 14,” said Adams.

    A traumatic injury as a young man had changed him completely. “He had a very bad head injury when he was 14 from a bicycle accident. His behavior changed after the accident,” said Adams. “He sort of lost his ability to make good decisions… He lost his impulse control, he lost his fear.”

    His family couldn’t help him, Adams said, especially because was never ready to seek help. “He never wanted to get better. From the time he started doing drugs, he wanted to do more drugs and that’s all he wanted.”

    Adams described what it’s like to see a loved one lost in addiction. “If you don’t have any personal experience with opioid addiction, it doesn’t look like anything else you’ve ever seen,” he said in the emotional live stream. “It turns people into walking zombies who quite clearly are not in their own mind and are not in control of their actions.”

    Fentanyl is a pharmaceutical painkiller said to be 50-100 times stronger than morphine. Because of its high potency and the growing demand for opioids, an illicit market for fentanyl has emerged. It is said to have fueled the rise in opioid-related deaths over the years.

    In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded 63,632 drug overdose deaths in the U.S.—42,249 of them involved prescription and illicit opioids, including fentanyl.

    Adams, who’s made a name for himself as a conservative pundit of some sort, goes on to “call for [the] execution” of the people who according to the U.S. government are to blame for the fentanyl crisis—Chinese suppliers.

    Adams stoically explains that executing “Chinese executives” of companies who produce and distribute illicit fentanyl “would be a great step.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Are $1 Test Strips The Key To Curbing Fentanyl Deaths?

    Are $1 Test Strips The Key To Curbing Fentanyl Deaths?

    Harm reduction advocates are applauding a new study that examines whether the test strips proved beneficial to injection drug users.

    Fentanyl, the powerful opioid said to be responsible for exacerbating the opioid crisis, could be meeting its match: a $1 test strip that indicates the presence of fentanyl in street drugs.

    A group of researchers wondered, if drug users had free access to these test strips, would they adjust their drug use to avoid dying from fentanyl?

    They put together a research study, published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, that distributed test strips to 125 heroin users at a needle exchange program in Greensboro, North Carolina. They then distributed an online survey that revealed 81% of the heroin users had used the strips, with 63% reporting that their drugs tested positive.

    Those who saw that their drugs contained fentanyl were five times more likely to adjust the way they used the drug so they would not overdose.

    For example, they may have opted to snort it instead of injecting it, slowing down the rate at which it enters the bloodstream. Others opted to simply use a smaller dose.

    The results are in line with a study by Johns Hopkins University researchers that found that users who preferred to inject their drugs did want to know if fentanyl was present, and would take its presence into account when using.

    Proponents of harm reduction see the study as a positive step forward.

    “Harm reduction at its core is a scrappy self-made movement,” said Daniel Ciccarone, a UCSF professor and study co-author. “Syringe exchange and naloxone peer distribution came out of this movement and have gone mainstream. But the [test strips] need an evidence base in order to become the next intervention in this legacy.”

    Slowly but surely, test strips are making their way to being distributed alongside clean needles at needle exchanges. However, unlike clean needles, test strips are still considered paraphernalia and thus face some legal restrictions in their distribution.

    The District of Columbia and Maryland have already adjusted their laws to allow the distribution of test strips, and advocates are confident other cities will soon follow.

    But even if the legal jam were to be overcome, there’s another problem. That $1 price tag on each strip adds up. Critics say it’s more cost-efficient for users to simply act like all their drugs contain fentanyl instead of testing each and every dose, but that’s not good enough, said Jon Zibbell, RTI International public health analyst and study author.

    “That’s like saying, ‘Assume everyone you have sex with has chlamydia,’” Zibbell said, suggesting that most people don’t act on a risk unless they have concrete evidence it’s real.

    He hopes that the strips will lead to more cost-effective bulk testing methods, such as spectrometers that scan for fentanyl at every needle exchange site.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Cher's Houseguest Arrested For Allegedly Selling Illicit Fentanyl

    Cher's Houseguest Arrested For Allegedly Selling Illicit Fentanyl

    Cher was on tour in Australia at the time of the arrest.

    Police in Los Angeles descended on the home of Oscar-winning entertainer Cher to arrest a houseguest who was allegedly involved in the sale of fentanyl that resulted in an overdose death.

    Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Cher’s Malibu home on September 27 and arrested 23-year-old Donovan Ruiz whom officials said was living at the residence.  

    A spokesperson for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said that Ruiz was arrested for a “narcotics overdose that occurred within the last two weeks.” Cher was on tour in Australia at the time of the arrest.

    Some media sources have alleged that Ruiz is the son of Cher’s longtime assistant, though this has yet to be verified by police.

    What is known, according to a press release from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, is that law enforcement from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Interagency Pharmaceutical Crimes Unit had been conducting a narcotics investigation into Ruiz for a period of two weeks prior to the arrest, and that Ruiz allegedly sold fentanyl to “many users in Ventura County,” including a Thousand Oaks resident who later died from an overdose in mid-September. 

    As numerous media sources reported, police served a search warrant at Cher’s home in the afternoon of the 25th. Witnesses saw several patrol cars and first responder vehicles at the residence, which initially prompted concerns about the singer’s health.

    The Blast reported that Ventura County had contacted the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to inform them of their intent to conduct a search on the premises in regard to a drug-related offense. 

    Detectives reportedly seized evidence that was allegedly linked to Ruiz and sales of an “illegal controlled substance.” Ruiz was subsequently arrested and charged with the sale of such a substance, but again, according to The Blast, additional charges related to the overdose could be expected.

    Ruiz’s bond was set at $500,000, and it remained undetermined if he would make bail prior to his arraignment in Ventura County Superior Court at 1:30 p.m. on October 1. The Blast cited sources that said that Ruiz was a “good person” who would never “sell drugs that would kill someone.”

    At the time of the incident, Cher was slated to perform at shows in Brisbane, Australia.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Prince’s Half-Sister Talks About His Death, Fentanyl

    Prince’s Half-Sister Talks About His Death, Fentanyl

    Sharon Nelson says the music icon was just trying to control his pain when he took the fatal dose of fentanyl.

    First came prescription drugs and heroin. Now, the synthetic opioid, fentanyl, is ripping through the country, killing scores of people who take heroin, cocaine or prescription pills that have been laced with fentanyl.

    That’s exactly what happened to Prince, according to his half-sister, Sharon Nelson. 

    Speaking with ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff for a 20/20 segment that will air Friday night, Nelson said that her brother was just trying to control his pain. 

    “He wouldn’t have taken a pill like that at all,” Nelson, Prince’s oldest sister, said in a preview released by ABC. “When you’re in pain, you’re going to take a pill, hoping it relieves it. You’re not thinking like that; you’re not thinking like a normal person who isn’t in pain.”

    Woodruff said that Prince’s death made fentanyl a household name and raised awareness about the drug. 

    “This is kind of a wakeup call for people around the country about the power and danger of these pills, from a man who—no chance given his intelligence and position in life—would never have taken a pill with so much fentanyl,” Woodruff said. 

    Fentanyl can be used in a medical setting to control severe pain. However, toxicology reports showed that the levels of the drug in Prince’s blood when he died in April of 2016 were extremely high and were a “smoking gun,” as to his cause of death. 

    “The amount in his blood is exceedingly high, even for somebody who is a chronic pain patient on fentanyl patches,” Dr. Lewis Nelson, chairman of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, told the Associated Press earlier this year. 

    However, there are reports that the singer thought that he was taking Vicodin, not fentanyl pills. Nelson said the fact that her brother, an experienced opioid user, died from an overdose shows how dangerous fentanyl is.

    She said she hopes fans will realize that fentanyl is extremely dangerous and that it can be lurking anywhere—even when people think they know what drugs they are taking. 

    “After all that’s happened to Prince, I know, I can say for sure that his fans will never take that pill,” she said.

    The episode of 20/20 that Nelson appears on is focused on fentanyl, including investigating the source of illicit fentanyl from China and speaking with families who have lost loved ones to fentanyl overdose. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Overdose Deaths Increase in New Jersey Even As Prescriptions Decline

    Overdose Deaths Increase in New Jersey Even As Prescriptions Decline

    State attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal says that despite the fatal OD increase “there are reasons for hope.”

    Opioid overdose deaths in New Jersey increased by 24% last year, even as the number of prescriptions written for opioids fell for the first time in recent years. 

    According to a press release from the state attorney general’s office, just over half of opioid overdose deaths in the state were caused by fentanyl and other synthetic opioids meant to mimic its strength. 

    “We still lose too many of our residents to drug overdoses, and the death toll continues to rise,” said Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal. “But, if we look at the numbers, there are reasons for hope.”

    Despite the fact that an average of eight New Jersey residents die from an opioid overdose each day, Grewal said that policies to limit prescriptions of opioids are working. The state’s opioid prescription rate peaked in 2015, when 5.64 million opioid prescriptions were dispensed.

    By 2017, that number was down to 4.87 million, making last year the first “in recent memory when the number of opioid prescriptions fell below 5 million,” said the press release. 

    In March 2017, the state enacted a five-day limit on first-time opioid prescriptions. Since then, prescriptions of opioids have decreased 26%.

    Between January 2014 and March 2017 they were reduced just 18%, so this suggests a significant improvement in cutting back on opioid prescriptions. Overall, opioid prescriptions have been reduced by 39% between January 2014 and July of this year.

    “The decreasing rate of prescription opioids dispensed in New Jersey shows that a smart approach to the opioid epidemic can help turn the tide. If we persist in our efforts to prevent addiction and overdoses, we can save lives,” said Sharon Joyce, director of the Office of the New Jersey Coordinator for Addiction Responses and Enforcement Strategies (NJ CARES).

    In order to try and decrease the opioid overdose rate, the state will begin offering more information online, including data on naloxone administration rates and overdose rates for specific counties. 

    “The Attorney General is not only making his Department’s opioids data publicly available,” the press release said. “Through NJ CARES, the Department is relying on data to target its education efforts and identify its enforcement priorities.”

    The administration is also focusing on outreach efforts, including an ad campaign to highlight a safe disposal program for unused prescriptions.

    And the musical Anytown will be performing at middle and high schools across the state to raise awareness about the dangers of opioids. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "Drug Llama" Allegedly Sold 50,000 Fentanyl Pills On Dark Web

    "Drug Llama" Allegedly Sold 50,000 Fentanyl Pills On Dark Web

    Investigators say the woman who reportedly calls herself “The Drug Llama” also sold Oxy, Percs and amphetamines through a dark web marketplace.

    A California woman known on the dark web as “The Drug Llama” is accused of shipping more than 50,000 fentanyl pills to consumers across the United States since 2016. 

    Melissa Scanlan, 31, is facing federal charges in Illinois and is also being investigated for two deaths in San Diego, where she lives, according to The San Diego Union Tribune.

    In those cases, investigators allege that she sold fentanyl that led to the deaths of a 10-month-old boy and a 41-year-old woman. The baby died after his father bought fentanyl—allegedly from Scanlan—and left it within reach of the child. The boy was found unresponsive in his parents’ bed.  

    These might be two of many deaths allegedly caused by Scanlan’s drugs. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri Hobson told a federal judge that Scanlan has trafficked more than 50,000 fentanyl pills, although the indictment against her only covers 400 grams of fentanyl. 

    Scanlan was the subject of a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) undercover operation in both San Diego and St. Louis. As the scope of the investigation expanded, the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Department of Homeland Security also became involved. 

    Investigators say that Scanlan was selling drugs on the dark web marketplace called Dream Market, where she was known as “The Drug Llama.”

    In addition to selling fentanyl, she also offered oxycodone, amphetamines, morphine, Percocet, temazepam, flexeril, and an “opiate powder pack,” according to federal documents. Her fentanyl was pressed into blue pills that were disguised as oxycodone. The drugs arrived in leather pouches much like those sold by a company Scanlan owns. 

    Federal investigators ordered drugs from the “Llama” in July and were able to track Scanlan using the return address on the packages. The address listed was associated with an old business of Scanlan’s, and the name listed—Samantha Cooper—was later found to be the names of her two dogs. A Paypal account also linked Scanlan processed thousands of drug-related transactions. 

    In August, Scanlan was arrested on state drug charges after a search of her home. However, shortly after she was released she traveled to Mexico to arrange the shipment of more fentanyl to her house, and redirected her customers to another dark web marketplace where they could purchase the drugs. 

    She was arrested again on September 4 and admitted to buying fentanyl from a Mexican cartel. This time, federal prosecutors are arguing that she is a flight risk and a danger, noting that Scanlan is five months pregnant but continuing to engage in criminal activity. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Bill Targeting Opioids Sent By Mail Up For Senate Vote

    Bill Targeting Opioids Sent By Mail Up For Senate Vote

    The STOP Act will require the U.S. Postal Service to collect electronic data on packages being shipped into the country.

    The Senate will likely pass a bill this week that aims to reduce the number of fentanyl shipments coming into the country via the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). 

    The STOP Act, which stands for Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention, will require the postal service to collect electronic data on packages being shipped into the country, including the sender’s and recipient’s addresses and the contents as described by the sender.

    Right now, only private courier services like FedEx, UPS and DHL require this information, which means that people can send opioids through the postal service and be virtually untraceable. 

    Illicit fentanyl can be easily made in China and shipped to the United States, since a small volume is immensely powerful and profitable. 

    “We are being overrun with fentanyl,” Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who led an 18-month study of illegal imports, told the New York Times. “It is 50 times more powerful than heroin. It is very inexpensive. It is coming primarily from China and coming primarily through our U.S. Postal Service, if you can believe it.”

    In addition to requiring that the postal service gather additional information on packages, the bill would make is possible for the government to levy fines to the postal service if it does not comply. The postal service would also have the authority to block or destroy packages that have not been properly identified.

    Right now, the postal service must “obtain a warrant to inspect the contents of suspect parcels,” according to William Siemer, acting deputy inspector general of USPS, who testified before Congress this year.

    President Trump supports the measures, taking to Twitter to voice his enthusiasm. 

    “It is outrageous that Poisonous Synthetic Heroin Fentanyl comes pouring into the U.S. Postal System from China,” he wrote last month in a tweet. “We can, and must, END THIS NOW! The Senate should pass the STOP ACT—and firmly STOP this poison from killing our children and destroying our country.”

    The STOP Act has been languishing after it was introduced nearly 18 months ago, allowing shipments of opioids to continue. However, the House passed a similar initiative over the summer, prompting the Senate to move on the issue.

    In addition to addressing the dangers of opioid shipments, the bill would also expand access to treatment for infants born dependent on opioids, implement more stringent packaging requirements for some medications, and accelerate research into non-addictive painkillers that could potentially replace opioids. 

    View the original article at thefix.com