Docs warn of spike in fentanyl- related deaths
They flock to West Side drug markets — from downtown- bound white- collar workers to petty criminals — in search of heroin.
But many buyers are likely unaware that the heroin is laced with a potentially deadly dose of the pain reliever fentanyl.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office said Monday that they’ve seen a recent spike in deaths attributed to fentanyl and closely related drugs. Fentanyl is often mixed with heroin or cocaine to boost the high — sometimes with deadly consequences.
“Fentanyl and fentanyl analogues pose a great public health [ risk] because people may not know they’re using a very powerful drug,” said Dr. Peter Koin, deputy chief toxicologist for the medical examiner’s office. “In addition, we’re seeing new versions of fentanyl, and testing for these substances is challenging because we’ve never seen them before. It’s something brand new.”
It’s hard to quantify how many more people may be dying from fentanyl- related overdoses in Cook County because routine testing for the drug only began in June 2015 — after national trends showed a spike in fentanyl use. In 2014, 20 deaths were attributed to the drug. Last year, the number had risen to 102 deaths. But officials cautioned against making a year- to- year comparison.
Dr. Steven Aks, an emergency room doctor and toxicologist at Stroger Hospital, said he’s seen the spike firsthand. In one day last September, there were nine patients suffering from fentanyl- related overdoses in the Stroger ER. A single patient each day is more typical, Aks said.
Fentanyl can be up to 100 times more potent than her- oin, Aks said.
“So if someone doesn’t know that, if they take a similar quantity, it will knock them out, and they could die from that,” Aks said.
Aks said it appears that some patients have no idea the drug they’ve taken contains fentanyl.
It isn’t clear what’s driving the spike in fentanyl use. Kathie Kane- Willis, director of the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy at Roosevelt University, said it appears the illegal production of fentanyl has become more widespread as drug traffickers seek to boost profits.
“Because heroin is trafficked, in order to maximize profits, you want to put the most potent product in the smallest possible space,” Kane- Willis said.
Ironically, perhaps, fentanyl can sometimes be a big draw for heroin users.
“In the fall of 2015, 95 overdoses with fentanyl- laced heroin occurred in just a six- day period [ in the city],” said Anthony Riccio, chief of the Chicago Police Department’s organized crime bureau, which investigates drug trafficking. “The effect on the street is not what we would think. When word spreads on the street that fentanyl- laced heroin is out there and people are overdosing, addicts actually flock to that location to get it because they know the high is so significant.”