Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
A cheap, potent painkiller
With a steady demand for drugs fueled by a burgeoning recovery population, dealers found a cheap, potent painkiller to combine with heroin and increase their profits: fentanyl.
Fentanyl and its opioid-related cousins, including morphine and heroin, are responsible for the majority of the county’s overdose deaths, according to medical examiner records and police.
The same drug dealers and organizations that sold cocaine in the 1980s, pills in the 1990s and 2000s are now selling heroin and fentanyl, West Palm Beach Police Capt. Brian Kapper said.
Heroin in South Florida primarily comes from Mexico and South America, according to a South Florida report on opiates. Drug dealers often cut their heroin or even pass off pure fentanyl as heroin, because it’s so much cheaper, Kapper said.
A kilogram of heroin, about 2.2. pounds, sells for $60,000 to $80,000 on the streets, but a kilogram of fentanyl made in China and bought off the internet costs about $2,000 to $5,000, Kapper said.
“The drug dealers are capitalists,” he said. “If I go out and sell that fentanyl as heroin, I put a bunch of cut in there and the fentanyl is still stronger, I’m going to make a lot more money.”
Fentanyl is so powerful that West Palm Beach Police stopped testing heroin capsules in the field after two officers accidentally inhaled some airborne residue and were rushed to the hospital, Kapper said.
Delray police saw a surge in the use of fentanyl beginning in August 2015, when officers identified the first death attributed to the drug, said Delray police Sgt. Paul Weber.
Besides fentanyl, authorities have found dealers using a variety of potent combinations in their drug cocktails. Weber said Delray police dealers sometimes mix in cocaine, cold and anti-anxiety medicine.
The medical examiner’s office identified 15 drugs in the opiate family present in bodies of people who died from overdoses in 2015, according to records.
Delray’s police chief said some officers are getting burnt out from repeatedly saving addicts with an overdose-reversal drug called Narcan.
“Some of these people are overdosing five, six, seven times. We’re seeing the same people,” Goldman said. “It’s a disease. They are addicted. They might have a choice when they first started to try it, but there’s not much choice when they are in it.”
The problem has gotten so bad in Lake Worth that Triolo and many other residents have seen syringes lying around in public, she said. looked at his resident and jokingly asked, “What? No one wants you?” Those in the room laughed. 4th Dimension requires residents to find jobs, attend 12-step meetings, do chores around the house and meet with a sponsor. Residents have to stay for at least six months, but the average stay is nine months.
Fernandez said he develops a camaraderie among residents. The work and the friendships help to integrate them back into a regular life, he said.
Fernandez and his partner Beau Strickland, both recovering addicts, say they have about 20 residents spread out among three allmale homes in Lake Worth.
4th Dimension has never had anyone die, or even overdose in one of the homes, though it’s always possible, Fernandez said.
“If I didn’t have this, I’d probably be using,” said Joseph Wilson, 34, who came from Texas and has lived at the home for the past two months.
As successful sober homes work to decrease the demand for drugs among their residents, authorities are arresting those they say are unscrupulous operators.
Authorities have detained at least seven men in recent weeks who are accused of taking illegal kickbacks for referring patients to substance abuse treatment. State law prohibits health care providers from offering bonuses, kickbacks or bribes in return for patient referrals.
The arrests are part of a multiagency effort known as the Palm Beach County Sober Homes Task Force designed to target and cut down on illicit business practices in the recovery industry.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office is collaborating with the State Attorney’s Office to decrease drugs and prostitution in downtown Lake Worth, said Therese Barbera, a sheriff ’s spokeswoman.
Over two days in mid-November, deputies made 34 drug arrests, seizing .4 grams of heroin and 16 methadone pills among other drugs, according to sheriff’s office statistics.
Delray Beach Police are cracking down on drug dealers that are selling narcotics causing overdoses, Weber said. Delray police have arrested 63 drug dealers since the start of a March campaign, he said.
Delray’s mayor said he thinks that a recent joint statement made by the departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development might allow cities more leeway to stymie the over-concentration of group homes in certain areas.
Delray Mayor Cary Glickstein said his city will consider a temporary hold on new recovery residences until the statement is reviewed. In the meantime, Glickstein would like to see more done to prosecute drug dealers, he said.
“Persons driving get-away cars can be charged for felony murder or attempted murder for the acts of others. Opioid dealers know there is a chance their customers may overdose and die, just like the getaway driver knows there’s a chance his or her accomplice may hurt or kill someone,” Glickstein said. “They should be arrested and tried for attempted murder.”