Potent problem increases grip
Report: Bay State logs second-most fentanyl cases nationwide
Massachusetts recorded the second-most cases involving the deadly synthetic drug fentanyl last year, according to a sweeping federal report that identifies heroin as the nation’s top drug threat, surpassing methamphetamine and controlled prescription drugs.
The Bay State had 3,911 fentanyl reports last year, trailing only Ohio, which saw 7,971 cases of the potent drug, according to the report released this week predicting fentanyl will “continue to pose a grave threat” to the country.
“Its extreme potency level means a small quantity of the drug can cause mass overdose events,” the report states. “The illicit fentanyl market will expand in the near term as new fentanyl products reach a wider variety of drug users.”
The Drug Enforcement Administration report found at least one case in Massachusetts of fentanyl being mixed with methamphetamine, and eight incidents of cocaine cut with fentanyl.
The cocaine-fentanyl mixture, called “speedballs,” aims to give a user the highs brought by the cocaine and ease the sharp comedown with the fentanyl, officials said.
Last month, the DEA and state police reported the first Massachusetts cases of carfentanil — an elephant tranquilizer 100 times more powerful even than fentanyl — in drug samples submitted for analysis from Brockton, Boston, Lawrence, Hanson, Abington, Rockland, Kingston and Dedham.
While the report’s alarm over heroin and fentanyl is well known in Massachusetts, where more than 2,100 people died of opioid overdoses last year, its broad survey of police nationwide show that the scourge of heroin — more than any other drug — is a top threat across the country.
Four out of 10 cops surveyed by the DEA named heroin as the top drug threat, with three out of 10 putting methamphetamines as the most dangerous. The survey also found heroin as most contributing to property crime and contributing to violent crime.
“Heroin poses a serious public health and safety threat to the United States,” the DEA’s National Drug Threat Assessment says. “Overdose deaths, already at high levels, continue to rise,” a vicious trend exacerbated by heroin being cut with deadly potent synthetic drugs like fentanyl.
The report also details the role Dominican drug traffickers play in smuggling cocaine and heroin from Mexican and Colombian drug cartels to street-level dealers throughout New England.
The Dominican traffickers, who have their strongest concentration in the Interstate 95 corridor, “are positioned to retain their leading role in the mid-level distribution of illegal drugs particularly in the Northeast,” the report said.
The DEA report states Dominicans collaborate with suppliers in Mexico, Colombia and the Dominican Republic to ship heroin and cocaine across the region. The traffickers get cocaine and heroin shipments in the hundreds of kilograms from wholesalers to sell to street-level drug dealers.