|
|
|
The views expressed on this page are
solely
those of the author and do not
necessarily represent the views of County
News Online
|
 |
Fentanyl is still in town
By Melissa Martin, Ph.D.
When you really want to know what’s going on in the illicit drug world
in Ohio, who ya gonna call? People with drug addictions. People in
recovery. Treatment providers. Law enforcement. Survey says you contact
them all.
The Ohio Substance Abuse Monitoring Network (OSAM) provides the
Surveillance of Drug Abuse Trends report in the State of Ohio by way of
the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. OSAM
Network consists of eight regions located in Akron- Canton, Athens,
Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown—with
Ohio’s 88 counties categorized in each of the eight regions. The
following excerpts and information is from the June 2018 - January
2019. Read more at www.mha.ohio.gov.
While heroin remains highly available throughout OSAM regions,
respondents from the survey acknowledged that a lot of heroin contains
fentanyl or is fentanyl substituted for heroin. While respondents
discussed speaking of fentanyl apart from heroin as challenging, the
consensus throughout OSAM regions was that fentanyl remains highly
available as evidenced in the high prevalence of fentanyl-cut drugs.
Participants throughout OSAM regions continued to discuss the risk for
overdose. They said:“[Drug dealers]don’t know how to regulate it (cut
fentanyl into heroin). They don’t know how much to give out. You can
give a little tiny line to somebody and it’ll put them down (they will
overdose); You’re getting fentanyl and you don’t know what milligram it
is; Some people don’t take the time to do like a warm up (tester of
heroin) to see how it’s gonna affect them.... When you don’t use
responsibly, or you’re careless about it ... that’s why you’re seeing
[overdose]happen so much.”
Current street jargon includes several terms for fentanyl. Throughout
OSAM regions, participants continued to note “fetty” as the most common
street name generally, followed by “fetty wop.” A participant reported
hearing people say, “I want that fetty.” Reportedly, “gray reaper” is
so named because of the usual color of the drug when mixed with heroin
and because of its extreme potency which often leads to fatal overdose.
Additional fentanyl cuts mentioned included: baby formula, beef
bouillon, carfentanil, cocaine, coffee creamer, head shop products,
heroin, laxatives, methamphetamine, sleeping pills, table sugar and
vitamins. They stated: “They have to ‘step on’ (adulterate) it or
everybody would be dying ... they have to cut [fentanyl]; They cut it
with cocaine to keep you alive. If you’re dead, they can’t make any
money off you; [Fentanyl is] cut with powdered sugar, and you’re still
going to get high.” Many other substances are used in combination with
fentanyl. Participants reported that fentanyl is most often used with
heroin, crack/powdered cocaine, methamphetamine and sedative-hypnotics
(Xanax®).
Throughout the regions of Ohio, a gram of fentanyl sells for $80-180;
1/2 gram sells for $40-60; and 1/10 gram sells for $10-20.
According to the Ohio Osteopathic Association, fentanyl is a powerful
synthetic narcotic that is estimated to be 30 to 50 times more potent
than heroin, and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. The number
of fentanyl-related deaths in Ohio increased from 84 in 2013, to 503 in
2014 and rose to 1,155 in 2015. www.ooanet.org.
According to the Ohio Dept. of Health, in 2018, fentanyl was involved
in nearly 80 percent of all heroin-related overdose deaths, 74 percent
of all cocaine-related overdose deaths, and 67 percent of all
psychostimulant-methamphetamine-related overdose deaths. Carfentanil
was involved in 75 fentanyl-related overdose deaths in 2018 compared to
1,010 in 2017. www.odh.ohio.gov.
According to a 2020 article in the Canton Repository,“Most Ohioans do
not know that a deadly poison is being added to heroin, cocaine,
crystal methamphetamine and, yes, even marijuana. It is called
fentanyl, or one of its analogues. And it is killing people…Between
2013 and 2018, fentanyl and its analogues (almost all of it illegally
manufactured in labs in China or by Mexican cartels) killed 10,263
Ohioans.”
It appears that fentanyl has no plans on leaving town.
Melissa Martin, Ph.D., is an author, columnist, educator, and
therapist. She lives in Southern Ohio. Contact her at
melissamcolumnist@gmail.com.
|
|
|
|
