Drug czar nominee responds to K2 crisis
NEW HAVEN — Local, state and federal officials met Monday with Jim Carroll, the nominee for federal drug czar and current deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, to discuss addiction and substance abuse.
The meeting was held in response to last week’s more than 100 overdoses by 47 people on the city Green caused by a bad batch of K2, which is a synthetic cannabinoid. Emergency personnel were pushed to their limits during a 72-hour period as they responded to one emergency call after another.
While the massive K2 overdoses weren’t directly related to the opioid crisis, Gov. Dannel P.
Malloy said the two areas overlap substantially, which is why these issues are being discussed simultaneously.
“The vast majority of people who were falling victim to K2 in this particular case also had an opioid addiction, which had been, thus far, unsuccessfully treated,” Malloy said.
Nationally, overdose deaths reached a record level of 72,000 in 2017, according to a recent federal report, The Associated Press reported. In Connecticut, there were 3,090 visits to hospital emergency rooms for suspected drug overdoses between January and April, Hearst has reported.
Carroll said the opioid crisis is a bipartisan issue, as both sides of the aisle support a multi-pronged approach focused on prevention and education, providing treatment for those suffering, and stopping traffickers.
“Going forward, we have committed to working with each other in a bipartisan fashion along with other members of the Senate to make sure we get what we need to stop approximately 200 people a day from dying from this epidemic,” Carroll said.
No one died from last week’s overdoses in New Haven, but U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said it’s only a matter of time before someone does.
“The New Haven Green is simply the tip of the iceberg in a national epidemic that must be addressed,” Blumenthal said. “We have a historic opportunity and an obligation to address this crisis and national epidemic, not with more talk, but with action. Now is the time for action, not just messaging and speeches.”
While state Senate Republican President Len Fasano of North Haven issued a public statement last week criticizing city officials for knowingly allowing the New Haven Green to “deteriorate” to “a place of despair,” Malloy stressed Monday the Green isn’t the problem, but blamed addiction.
New Haven Mayor Toni N. Harp said the city has been working tirelessly over the past four years to address the issues on the Green.
Moving forward, she said she has received assurances from Malloy, the Department of Public Health and the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services about providing recovery coaches, a street psychiatrist and training and dissemination of Narcan, an antioverdose drug.
“We will have the cutting-edge treatment here, and currently we have everything that is available to anyone else and then some,” Harp said.
Blumenthal said legislation being proposed this week will ask for a more than $500 million increase, as part of a $3.39 billion program, in resources toward mental health, opioid treatment and recovery.
“People overdosing on K2 or fentanyl can’t count on Narcan or public health responders to always be there for them,” Blumenthal said. “We’re going to see deaths.”
K2 is a synthetic cannabinoid that includes herbs or leafy materials sprayed with chemicals to mimic the effect of marijuana. In 2012, the sale of synthetic cannabinoids was banned nationally. While many individuals believe that K2 is safe, there have been numerous cases of serious reactions and overdoses related to it, according to a police news release.
Police said in the release that all of the K2 samples tested for this case by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency were positive for Fubinaca, a synthetic cannabinoid.
According to the DEA , AB-FUBINACA was introduced as a Pfizer patent in 2009, but there are no medical or commercial uses for the drug. It is listed as a Schedule 1 drug, as are cocaine, heroin and marijuana, according to the DEA .