Bootleg fentanyl linked to OD spike
Georgia’s Department of Public Health has issued a warning about a cluster of overdoses from counterfeit pills that contain fentanyl, a potent opioid drug.
Roughly 100 cases are suspected in the Augusta area, according to Public Health officials. But there also have been cases reported in the Savannah area and Northwest Georgia, as well as a few in metro Atlanta.
The sellers of the pills may have claimed they were Xanax, a drug used to treat anxiety and panic disorders, or the painkiller Percocet, according to an alert from state epidemiologist Cherie Drenzek to community leaders.
Public Health said Wednesday that there have been unconfirmed reports of hospitalizations and deaths associated with the pills, but did not provide further details.
Most of the patients in the Augusta area were ages 25 to 49, the state alert said.
State officials detected the pattern of overdoses from “syndromic surveillance,’’ a method of categorizing — nearly in real time — people’s visits to emergency rooms and urgent care facilities. Drenzek’s alert said this surveillance is based on the chief complaint that a patient reports at an ER, not on the patient’s eventual diagnosis, so a case will initially be referred to as a “suspect overdose.’’
Public Health said it first noticed the counterfeit pill trend in mid-january.
The GBI told Georgia Health News on Thursday that there were currently no related investigations into the overdoses.
People don’t know what they’re getting
Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than the painkiller morphine. As a prescription drug, fentanyl can be given in the form of transdermal patches or lozenges, but it also can be diverted for misuse and abuse, according to the CDC.
The recent cases of fentanyl-related harm, overdose, and death in the U.S. are linked not to prescription drugs but to illegally made fentanyl, the CDC says. It is sold through illegal markets for its heroin-like effect. It is often mixed with heroin and/ or cocaine as a combination product — sometimes without the user’s knowledge — to increase its euphoric effects.
In the Coastal Health District of Georgia, two patients mentioned taking heroin that may have been laced with fentanyl, state officials said.
“I think we’ve seen a lot of overdoses, a lot of patients that aren’t intentionally trying to overdose,” said Dr. Jay Goldstein, who practices emergency medicine at Memorial Health in Savannah, WSAV reported.
“But they are intentionally trying to take medications that are narcotic medications,” he added. “Sometimes you just don’t know what’s in that pill.”
Gaylord Lopez, director of the Georgia Poison Center, said Thursday that a west Georgia man, 20, recently bought a counterfeit oxycodone pill on the street, and the powerful narcotic, probably fentanyl, sent him into a coma. The man later recovered, Lopez said. Referring to fentanyl’s potency, Lopez said, “It’s not going to take much to be a problem.”
A transgender woman held in a Georgia men’s prison says she has been sexually assaulted repeatedly and denied necessary medical treatment and that prison officials retaliated against her after she filed complaints and a lawsuit.
Lawyers for Ashley Diamond of Rome asked a federal judge in court filings Friday to order prison officials to transfer her to a women’s prison to keep her safe from sexual victimization by male inmates, to provide her with medical treatment necessary for her gender dysphoria and to stop retaliating against her, among other things. Retaliation by prison officials includes unwarranted discipline reports and falsification of her records that has resulted in her release from prison being delayed, the filings say.
Diamond was convicted of a parole violation in Floyd County in 2019 and returned to prison to complete her sentence for a 2012 burglary and other charges.
Her lawyers say she has experienced physical and mental trauma that have left her feeling hopeless and resulted in multiple attempts at suicide and self-castration.
A Department of Corrections spokeswoman did not immediately re- spond Friday to an email seeking comment.
Diamond, 43, has identified as female since she was a child and began hormone therapy when she was 17, giving her full breasts, softer skin and a feminine appearance, according to court filings.
The Center for Constitutional Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center in November filed the federal lawsuit for Diamond, who is imprisoned at Coastal State Prison in Chatham County. Diamond previously sued Georgia corrections officials in 2015 over similar allegations during a previous term of incarceration.
Since her most recent imprisonment began in October 2019, Diamond has been sexually assaulted and abused 16 times, including three instances involving prison staff, her lawyers say. In a sworn statement submitted to the court, Diamond provides harrowing details of alleged attacks.
The Associated Press doesn’t generally identify victims of sexual assault, but Diamond has repeatedly come forward publicly to put a spotlight on the treatment of transgender people in prison.
After she filed complaints, prison officials
ATLANTA —