Fentanyl death toll on the rise
Connor was just 21 when he overdosed on fentanyl in his family’s home in Calgary.
He was among three students from his high school graduating class who died from overdoses, his mother, Yvonne, says.
“It blew me away because this kid absolutely loved life,” said Yvonne, who asked that her last name not be used. “It started as a choice, and then he got addicted to it; his personality grabbed on to it. It was a disease.”
Yvonne wants to help others from falling into the same trap. She was making plans last week to take her story into schools during the next academic year to warn students about street drugs.
“I want to tell them, don’t say this can’t happen to you, because it can,” she says.
Since Conner died in October 2013, fentanyl has grown into a frightening epidemic.
The powerful narcotic already has been linked to 50 Alberta deaths during the first two months of this year.
In many cases, the users think they are buying OxyContin or heroin. They’re wrong. It’s fentanyl, and it’s killing them.
“It’s the new wave of concern in drug enforcement,” RCMP Cpl. Eric Boechler of the B. C. clandestine lab unit says of fentanyl.
In British Columbia during the past two years, there have been 150 deaths related to fentanyl, which was created in 1960 as a pain reliever.
In many of the overdose deaths caused by fentanyl in B. C., the users took what would be a normal dose but, because it was spiked with fentanyl, it killed them.
“Two milligrams is a fatal dose,” Boechler says. “A paper- clip weighs about 1,000 milligrams.
“We’ve found fentanyl that’s 10,000 times more powerful than morphine.”
At the root of the issue: the federal government hasn’t regulated a principle means of the manufacture of fentanyl — the tablet press.
“Anyone can go on eBay and for $ 6,300 buy a XD9 pill press, shipping included,” Boechler says.
The dealers take fentanyl powder — most of which is smuggled in from Asia — and swiftly turn it into capsule form. They take advantage of the fact Canada, unlike other nations, doesn’t regulate who can buy a tablet press.
“That press can pump out 18,000 pills an hour,” Boechler says.
Insp. Darcy Strang of the Alberta law enforcement response team says most of the pill pressing for North America is being done in Canada and then shipped south. Neither the RCMP nor the U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration would put a number on what percentage flows to the U. S.
The dealers operating here are thought to be either resident Canadians or foreign nationals who have chosen to set up in this country because they can facilitate the manufacture of the product into pills.
The U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration believes Mexican cartels are also involved.
In the U. S., laws stipulate that any transactions involving tableting machines must be reported, Barbara Carreno of the DEA says. "It helps us keep track of what’s going on out there.”
Carreno says U. S. drug enforcement is based on a closed system — every link in the drug manufacturing or distribution process is monitored. If someone buys a pill press and doesn’t report it “we know it’s illicit,” she says.
Det. Steve Watts of the Toronto police drug squad says, “If our clandestine lab team is doing a bust, almost inevitably a pill press is found.”
The federal Health Department seemingly could step in and initiate a change in the Food and Drugs Act to help bring this toxic epidemic under control except for one problem.
“Though a pill press is used in the manufacturing of drug products, this equipment does not have a diagnostic or therapeutic effect on the patient and as such does not fit the definitions of ‘ drug’ or a ‘ device’ under the Food and Drugs Act,” spokesman Eric Morrissette says.
“Therefore, such equipment is not regulated as a drug or medical device under the Food and Drugs Act.”
A chemist who once worked in illegal drug labs and is now a police informant says some of his former colleagues are working on versions of fentanyl that are 40,000 times more powerful than morphine. He says it’s not that hard to make. He says about 75 per cent of the powder is being smuggled in from China, but “if you have the gear and the chemicals and the skills then it’s a facile process.”
It’s also easy to disguise fentanyl as other drugs and that’s why the problem escalates.
Fentanyl commonly is being mixed into tablets and powders and sold as fake OxyContin, heroin and even cocaine and crystal meth, says the chemist, who goes by the name Beaker, a pseudonym given him by his police handlers.
Beaker claims that up to 90 per cent of street heroin is actually fentanyl these days. Because fentanyl is so powerful it has to be “stepped on” — mixed or buffered with another ingredient, most often caffeine tablets.
“It’s easy to make a mistake and not add enough filler or have a hot spot,” Boechler says.
A hot spot happens when a few extra grains of fentanyl clump together, creating a fatal overdose. That creates a pill version of Russian roulette. You never know if the tablet you’re taking is going to get you high or kill you.
Police say the problem isn’t going away soon because there’s too much money to be made.
Dealers can buy a kilo of fentanyl for $ 12,000, police say. A comparable amount of heroin would cost $ 130,000. One kilo of fentanyl can produce one million pills. Each pill costs $ 40 on the street. That’s $ 40 million for every kilo pressed into pills.
In Alberta, Strang says in 2013 police seized fewer than 300 pills containing fentanyl. This year they’ve already seized close to 20,000. The death toll is mounting, too: 50 during the first two months this year and 100 in 2014, up from six in 2011.
A disproportionate number of those deaths have happened on Blood tribal land in southern Alberta. Just weeks ago, the band declared a state of emergency having suffered 16 overdose deaths since last August.
And according to Blood tribe police Chief Lee Boyd, there are “no signs of any abatement in the epidemic."
He says many users got hooked legally using OxyContin as a painkiller. When the federal government banned that drug, they switched to fentanyl.
“We’re getting almost daily incidents of overdoses,” he says.
Saskatchewan is starting to feel the impact of the fentanyl epidemic. In January, police seized $ 8- million worth of drugs, including 3,350 fentanyl pills. Several alleged members of motorcycle clubs were charged.
In Manitoba, police say fentanyl is becoming increasingly popular among addicts.
Toronto hasn’t seen as much activity as the West, although Watts says “there is definitely pharmaceutical and synthetic fentanyl in Toronto. We’re still dealing with micrograms ... B. C. is dealing with kilos.”
Nonetheless, overdose deaths in Ontario stemming from fentanyl in 2012- 13 surpassed 100.
With so much money on the line, front- line workers dealing with the problem say they’re overwhelmed. It’s a fight they’re worried they can’t win.
Boyd wants to see more help for the people addicted to fentanyl. "Enforcement is not the way out,” he says.
B. C. is handing out free overdose kits to drug users; Alberta is following suit and is ramping up efforts to crack down on fentanyl.
Alberta’s law enforcement response team normally deals only with organized crime groups, but is making an exception when it comes to policing fentanyl.
But it’s not enough, Boechler says.
“We’re not making as big a dent as we’d like to.”
Two milligrams is a fatal dose. A paper- clip weighs about 1,000 milligrams. We’ve found fentanyl that’s 10,000 times more powerful than morphine.