The Columbus Dispatch

Akron dealer going to prison for 28 drug overdoses in WV

- By John Raby

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — An Ohio man who sold heroin laced with an elephant tranquiliz­er that caused more than two dozen overdoses in West Virginia was sentenced to more than 18 years in federal prison Monday.

Bruce Lamar Griggs, of Akron, was “in this just for the money” when he sold the heroin mixture that sickened 28 people on Aug. 15 in Huntington, U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers said.

“Heroin is like driving intoxicate­d,” Chambers said. “You may not mean harm to anybody, but you have to serve a sentence commensura­te with the harm you did.”

Griggs, 22, apologized to the community and to his family as he read a statement before sentencing.

“I have made some costly and stupid decisions,” he said.

After sentencing, Griggs wiped tears from his eyes and his family members wept.

Laboratory tests of the victims’ blood and urine showed heroin mixed with fentanyl and carfentani­l — considered cheaper synthetic opioid alternativ­es that heroin dealers use to stretch their supplies. Several victims implicated Griggs, who was arrested a week later.

The U.S. Drug Enforcemen­t Administra­tion issued a warning in March 2015 that fentanyl, a powerful prescripti­on painkiller, was a threat to public health and safety. And last September, the DEA warned the public and law enforcemen­t nationwide about the health and safety risks of handling carfentani­l, which is considered 10,000 times stronger than morphine. It is used as an elephant tranquiliz­er and is not approved for human consumptio­n, according to the DEA.

West Virginia has the nation’s highest drug overdose death rate by far, with 41.5 deaths per 100,000 people in 2015, the latest year available, compared with a national average of 16.3.

In Cabell County, where Huntington is located, 70 people died of drug-related overdoses that year and more than 900 overdoses occurred. Communitie­s in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana also have seen recent spikes in overdoses.

“The heroin problem is worse than any of the other drug problems that we have faced,” Chambers said.

Authoritie­s have said two people died of heroin overdoses in Huntington around that time — one man at a Huntington hospital that night and another found dead and alone days later. But Chambers said neither death was from Griggs’ sales.

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