By Jon Kamp at The Wall Street Journal 

The U.S. opioid crisis shows no sign of receding as a new year begins, with the latest data from several hard-hit cities and states showing overdose fatalities reaching new peaks as authorities scramble to stem the tide. The synthetic opioid fentanyl, which has up to 50 times the potency of heroin, remains the chief culprit driving the increase in fatalities, according to medical examiners and health and law-enforcement authorities in abuse hot spots, such as Ohio, Maryland and New England.

Federal data for 2015 deaths came out only last month, showing a nearly 16% climb to 33,091 opioid deaths in the year. Many jurisdictions are still compiling the grim tallies for 2016.

“We’re just really awash in drug deaths, and it got acutely worse,” said Thomas Gilson, the medical examiner in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which includes Cleveland and is the state’s most populous county.

So far, his office has recorded 517 deaths from heroin and fentanyl in 2016, more than double the number from the previous year. And he isn’t done counting.

Fentanyl is a potent painkiller often used by cancer patients, but a bootleg version commonly made in China has become the major problem behind overdose deaths, according to law-enforcement and health authorities. Chemical cousins known as analogs are also on the rise, authorities said, sometimes as overseas labs switch recipes to keep ahead of law enforcement.

The worsening opioid crisis remains a major policy challenge for lawmakers. At the federal level, new legislation passed last month includes $1 billion over two years to help states improve abuse prevention and treatment initiatives. States have been working to monitor opioid prescribing, expand access to medically assisted treatment and distribute more naloxone, an overdose reversal drug.

Availability of data on overdose deaths varies city by city, and state by state. The same states with signs of higher fatal-overdose rates last year are among the 19 that posted statistically significant increases in 2015, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Ohio is likely months away from tallying statewide numbers, according to a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Health, but Dr. Gilson expects a sharp increase for the state as a whole.

Similarly, Pennsylvania is on track to have a significant statewide rise in 2016, said Patrick Trainor, a special agent in the Philadelphia office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which tallies overdose data for the state. Philadelphia alone may surpass 900 overdoses in 2016, up from 720 the prior year, he said.

In Maryland, the latest data show an estimated 1,468 overdose deaths through September 2016, which exceeds the entire tally from 2015. Authorities in Baltimore, a longtime heroin hot spot with a rising fentanyl problem, said overdose deaths surged 68% to 481 in the first nine-months last year, compared with the same period a year earlier.

New England states, which have among the highest fatal-overdose rates in the U.S., are broadly reporting higher death rates for 2016 as they continue to tally the data. Fentanyl, once seen largely by authorities as an additive that traffickers mixed into the heroin supply, has become a stand-alone killer in some areas.

Numbers released Wednesday by New Hampshire’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner counted 159 deaths last year with just fentanyl, compared with two heroin-only deaths and 19 deaths with both drugs. The office projects overdose deaths will climb 7% in 2016 from 2015, adding to the 35% year-over-year rise for the prior year.

Massachusetts also is seeing fentanyl in most overdose deaths now. New England’s most populous state has tallied 2016 data through September, and the state is on pace for more drug deaths this year, said Monica Bharel, commissioner of the state’s Department of Public Health.

Connecticut and Rhode Island are seeing more fatal overdoses in 2016, compared with the prior year, according to data collected thus far. Maine has reported 286 drug-overdose deaths through September 2016, 14 deaths more than in all of 2015.

Meanwhile, fentanyl-related overdoses in North Carolina rose at least 42% in 2016, compared with 2015, according to the state health department. The state hasn’t completed its 2016 tally.

Write to Jon Kamp at [email protected]

Two bills in the Arkansas Senate are being considered to prevent overprescription of prescription narcotics, which is also an effort to reduce prescription drug abuse and deaths due to prescription drug abuse. If Senate Bill 302, sponsored by Sen. Missy Irvin (R-Mountain View), is approved it will require professional licensing boards to promulgate rules requiring practitioners to access the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program.

The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program was established in 2011 which states, “Arkansas law requires that each dispenser shall submit, by electronic means, information regarding each prescription dispensed for a controlled substance. Each time a controlled substance is dispensed to an individual, the dispenser shall submit the information required by Arkansas law to the central repository weekly for the previous week, Sunday through Saturday.”

Chicago Tribune

By: Carrie Napoleon

A 37-year-old Crown Point woman became the 21st person in Lake County to die from an overdose Friday, a needle and syringe still stuck in her arm, according to the Lake County Coroner’s office.

With 21 fatalities in the year’s first 41 days, Lake County Coroner Merrilee Frey said a heroin epidemic is claiming an unprecedented number of lives. The total confirmed overdose deaths for January and the entire month of February last year was 18, she said.

“Know that we have many people, hundreds and hundreds in our communities who have an addiction,” Frey said.

The woman’s death paints a vivid picture of the problem that is expected to get worse before it gets better, she said. Heroin and opioid overdose deaths have been on the rise in recent years. There were 114 people who died from drug overdoses in Lake County in 2016. Frey fears the area is at the cusp of a spike in deaths.

“I’m hoping with all my heart after seeing such as high a number of deaths it will make (addicts) realize their own mortality,” Frey said.

Porter County Coroner Chuck Harris said heroin is a problem in his county as well, though the numbers are not as striking as those seen in Lake County.

In 2017, there have been two suspected heroin overdose deaths in Porter County, though toxicology reports are pending, he said. At this point in 2016 there were six opioid deaths — three from heroin, one from methadone, one from tramadol and one from morphine. His office will begin testing for fentanyl this year.

Harris said in 2016 there were 48 total drug-related deaths in Porter County. Of those, 20 had heroin in their systems and 36 had some form of opioid, which in some cases in combination with the heroin, he said.

Tackling the problem will take a multi-faceted approach, Harris said.

“There’s no one single answer,” Harris said. “We need treatment centers. We need to get rid of the stigma. People don’t want to seek help because they get labeled a drug user. It’s a disease, nothing different than any other type of disease.”

Harris said studies routinely show the need for long-term treatment centers.

“Instead of keep looking at it, we need to actually do it,” Harris said.

Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said the trend is alarming and it is getting worse. He said the use of fentanyl in heroin is particularly troubling. Users do not know what they are buying and what is mixed into their drugs and the extra potency is proving deadly.

“It is just going to take the community as a whole to come together and fight this,” Buncich said.

Not a day goes by without an addict being incarcerated at the Lake County Jail, he said. Buncich said 42 people were being treated at the jail for serious addictions Monday. He said the expense of treatment, and of supplying the sheriff’s department officers with naloxone, the heroin overdose antidote, continues to grow.

“We are facing a serious, serious situation here in Lake County. It is really hitting home here,” Buncich said.

The sheriff said police are doing what they can on the enforcement end regarding the problem but the solution is not behind a badge alone.

“We have to get a message out. We need to start young. We need to start within the schools right away,” Buncich said, adding the conversation in schools used to be about marijuana. Now, he said, it needs to be about the dangers of heroin.

“It’s a wake-up call,” Buncich said.

Frey said part of the spike in deaths being seen now has been attributed to an increased use of heroin laced with the narcotic painkiller fentanyl, the most powerful painkiller for medical use. As early as March 2015, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration issued a nationwide alert warning of the dangers of fentanyl and fentanyl analogues.

According to the DEA on its website, fentanyl is 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine.

Many of the overdose victims have a cocktail of other drugs and alcohol in their system including heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, marijuana, benzodiazepine and alcohol, Frey said. In 2016, 93 of the 114 overdose deaths were attributed to controlled substance. A controlled substance can be any type of narcotic including prescription drugs not used as they are prescribed. Heroin was found in the blood streams of 55 of the 114 overdose victims in 2016. Fentanyl was discovered in 27 of the victims and benzodiazepine was discovered in 75 of the victims.

“It sends a startling message of how dangerous heroin is and how dangerous it is mixed with other substances. The combinations are proving to be deadly,” Frey said.

Addicts, such as the woman who died Friday, may be falling victim to the laced heroin because of its unexpected potency, Frey said. The dose that killed the woman was so strong she died while still in the process of injecting herself, Frey said. She said the situation is tragic.

“Guess who is finding those victims? It’s the ones who love them the most – their moms and dads,” Frey said.

2016 Lake County drug deaths

Statistics from the Lake County Coroner’s office show the deaths cross the socio-economic spectrum and touch every Lake County community. Gary saw the highest number of overdoses in 2016 with 26 followed by Hammond with 18.

Crown Point had the third highest number of overdose deaths with nine, followed by Highland with eight. Griffith and Munster tied for fifth with seven overdose deaths each and in East Chicago there were six. There were four overdose deaths each in the cities of Hobart and Lake Station, and three overdose deaths each in Schererville and Dyer. Whiting, Merrillville and Lake Village each had two deaths. Cedar Lake, Hebron and Lowell each had one. There were 10 individuals who overdosed outside of Lake County but died in a Lake County hospital and count toward the 114 total.

In 2016, the statistics from Lake County show 75 overdose victims were men while 39 were women. Eighty of the 2016 overdose victims were white, 26 where black, seven were Hispanic and one individual was Asian.

The deaths cross all age groups. Sixteen people ranging in age from 15 to 24 died from overdoses in 2016 while another 26 died in the 25 to 34 age group; 22 in the 45 to 54 age group and 12 in the 55 to 64 age group.

The largest number of deaths appeared in the 35- to 44-year-old range where 36 people died from overdoses. Another two deaths were recorded in the 65- to 75-year-old age group. Coroner Merrilee Frey said the oldest person to die from an overdose in 2016 was 69.

WSCOTV.com – Charlotte, NC

By: Blake Hanson

As law enforcement agencies make landmark heroin arrests in the greater Charlotte area, officials are converging on the city to talk about the issue.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department are among the groups hosting a one-day conference Tuesday on the heroin and opiate crisis.

The Charlotte area saw an 80-year increase in heroin overdose deaths in 2016 over the previous year, according to the DEA.

Agencies have made major busts in recent weeks.

Gaston County law enforcement rounded up 18 people Monday morning suspected of trafficking and selling heroin.

In early February, the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office announced that it had made its largest-ever heroin bust. That case has ties to the Mexican drug cartel.

Federal prosecutors also recently reached a plea agreement with Maggie Sanders, a suspected trafficker, with alleged ties to a Mexican drug trafficking organization.

Jill Westmoreland Rose, U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, sat down with Channel 9 on Monday to talk about the rise in heroin and opiate abuse.

“Because marijuana is legal in so many places in the United States, (Mexican drug organizations) have found it’s not as lucrative to grow marijuana and smuggle it to the United States,” Rose said. “Those cannabis farmers have now turned to farming poppies.”

Rose said the organizations use their existing structures to distribute heroin.

“They are just smuggling in a different product,” Rose said.

Rose told Channel 9 that it’s important that her office target sources of supply from Mexico. But she said it must also tackle the problem through means other than prosecution.

“We can’t prosecute our way of this problem, so we have to look to the community, we have to look to other areas to help us combat this,” Rose said.

The conference will start at 9 a.m. Tuesday at Calvary Church in south Charlotte.

“Speak Up-Speak Out” Workshop at ASU

On February, 9, 2017, Arkansas State University in Jonesboro hosted the William Christian Doerhoff Memorial Foundation’s inaugural Speak Up-Speak Out workshop and the focus was on the life-threatening dangers of illicit prescription drug use and illegal substance abuse on high school and college campuses.

Amber Long of Arkansas State University Counseling Center told the crowd that, “As much as we don’t want to believe [drug problems] are here, it is.”

“You came to this university to make a difference,” said Matthew Barden, Assistant Special Agent and Charge of the DEA in Arkansas. “Tonight, we will present the compelling story of the prescription opioid crisis in our country and on campuses all across the nation. We hope to teach and empower students to escape the bystander effect, and save a life by speaking up and speaking out. We profile William ‘Will’ Christian Doerhoff, who grew up in Maumelle, Arkansas and went to Little Rock Catholic High School, one of the most stringent high schools in America.”

He added, “I challenge you not to do drugs and if you see someone who is – Speak Up-Speak Out.”

Featured speakers Barden and Long were supported by Executive Director of the Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy John Kirtley and Benton Police Department Chief Kirk Lane.

Will’s Story

Will had a 3.7 GPA and scored 27 on his ACT. He was a member of the Maumelle Youth Council and President of the Community Service Club at Catholic High where he spent his weekends working and volunteering to help people. As far as his parents knew, their son Will never abused drugs of any kind in high school.

Will began his college career in the fall semester of 2014 at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, as an 18-year-old freshman. Will said that during his fraternity pledging semester there was drinking and many of the boys, including Will, took illicit prescription drugs as a stimulant. Will confessed that one of his older fraternity brothers taught him to inject and smoke illicit prescription narcotics. Had Will’s parents known of this early, he would have been home and in treatment as quickly as this began.

In early July 2015, Will’s mother found him face-down, barely alive in his bedroom. His prescription drug use had escalated and he had overdosed on Heroin. Will was successful in recovery for a year. But one day in October 2016, he relapsed. At 20 years old, heroin took his life.

What began as permissive illicit prescription narcotics use on a college campus, led to the death of one of the most beautiful children God put on this earth, said Will’s parents. After Will’s death, his mother and father found his cell phone which was open to a chat and his fraternity brothers discussing what happened. In their words, “10 to 20” of them knew that their pledge brother had gotten caught up in hard drug use with an older student but none of them knew it was OK to say something or tell someone.

Students engage in the “Bystander Effect.” The William Christian Doerhoff Memorial Foundation’s goal is to empower peers to “Speak Up-Speak Out” when they know their friends are participating in illicit prescription drug use and illegal substance abuse. “You have the potential to save a life,” said Barden.