Victims are drowning in a cascade of illicit drugs

Editor’s note: This is the second installment of a multipart series looking at the drug epidemic gripping the nation.

By Chris Parker

cparker@tnonline.com

Opioids are most often the drug of choice in the staggering increase in the numbers of overdose deaths across the nation in recent years.

“Over the past 10 years, the drug landscape in the United States has shifted, with the opioid threat — including controlled prescription drugs, fentanyl and other synthetic opioids and heroin — reaching epidemic levels and impacting significant portions of the United States,” said U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Patrick J. Trainor.

Drug overdoses killed 63,632 Americans in 2016, about 21 percent more than in 2015, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The numbers show no signs of slowing.

The frighteningly potent painkiller fentanyl leads the pack in killer drugs.

“Fentanyl is increasingly mixed with diluents and sold as heroin, often with no heroin present in the product,” Trainor said.

“Fentanyl also continues to be made more widely available in the form of counterfeit prescription pills marketed for illicit street sales.

Pathologists also often see heroin, oxycodone, diazepam, diphenhydramine, alprazolam, levamisole, ethanol and increasingly, cocaine in the systems of those who have died of drug abuse,” he said.

In 2016, fentanyl was found in 2,294, or 51.6 percent, of overdose victims, up 130 percent from the previous year, according to coroner and medical examiner data.

Heroin accounted for another 45 percent, up 23 percent over 2015.

Benzodiazepines, cocaine and prescription opioids, including tramadol, oxycodone and morphine were also major players in overdose deaths.

Fentanyl was responsible for most of the overdose deaths in Carbon and Schuylkill counties in 2016. Heroin was in Monroe, Lehigh and Northampton, according to a report compiled by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, Philadelphia Division, and the University of Pittsburgh.

The DEA is keeping a close eye on a far more potent form of fentanyl, a drug called carfentanil.

“Carfentanil typically arrives into the United States via mail services from source countries such as China,” a report from the Philadelphia division states.

The drug comes in powder, pill and liquid form, with powder being the most common in Pennsylvania.

More than 85 people died of carfentanil-positive overdoses last year.

The deaths were in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Centre, Chester, Crawford, Dauphin, Erie, Fayette, Lehigh, Montgomery, Philadelphia and Somerset counties, according to data from the Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office and NMS Labs.

There may have been more deaths, but they may have been missed due to insufficient toxicology testing.

While China is a primary source for illicit fentanyl and fentanyl related substances, Mexican transnational criminal organizations are responsible for most of the illegal drug trade in the United States.

“The (organizations) are the principal wholesale drug sources for domestic gangs responsible for street-level distribution,” Trainor said.