Cops: Third arrest made in rash of K2 overdoses

NEW HAVEN — A third man, believed to be a distributor of the bad batch of K2 that led to more than 100 overdoses since Tuesday night, has been arrested on a federal search warrant, New Haven Police Chief Anthony Campbell said Friday.

Campbell declined to identify the man, who is being held on federal drug charges, at a City Hall news conference Friday afternoon. But he did identify two city residents previously arrested in connection with the overdoses as Felix Ayala Melendez, 37, and John Parker, 53.

Campbell said Melendez, whom police had arrested in February on drug charges, has been charged with possession of a controlled substance. Parker is facing state drug charges as well as a federal narcotics charge.

Campbell said he is cautiously optimistic that city first responders now had seen the worst. Between 12:01 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Friday, he said there were no drug overdose calls made that required a response to the Green.

New Haven police Lt. Karl Jacobson, who heads the department’s intelligence and narcotics division, said city officials determined that 47 individuals were treated at least once for overdose. Some individuals were treated multiple times for overdosing, resulting in roughly 120 separate ambulance calls.

“We are a city that takes care of people who can’t take care of themselves,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson and Assistant Police Chief Herb Johnson acknowledged that trying to stop drug dealing on the Green presents a difficult set of challenges. Without restricting the public’s movement through the Green and citing people for minor infractions, Johnson said officers treat drug dealing there the way they would in any other part of the city.

“We investigate drug dealing all over the city,” he said. “When we get reports of it on the Green, we check it out.”

Campbell said the investigation into the overdoses is ongoing.

“We are continuing the investigation to see how high up it goes,” he said when asked whether any arrests of suppliers would be forthcoming. “And part of the ongoing investigation is to see whether a higher level of charges in appropriate (for those already arrested).”

The overdoses have drawn international attention, as city, state and federal officials and emergency crews grapple with ways to end the immediate health crisis, as well as address the social, economic and other issues that are part of a national drug addiction problem.

With visitors coming to the city for the Connecticut Open women’s tennis tournament over the next week, Mayor Toni Harp sought to assure visitors that they will be safe here.

“The city’s image has already taken a hit from this,” Harp said. “The sad thing is that the police department has done a phenomenal job reducing the crime rate, which is something that gets lost in this.”

In a morning news conference outside City Hall across from the Green, Campbell provided an update, noting the department has “a history” with the third man who is charged in connection with the overdoses.

“We’ve been trying to get the word out to make sure people understand please not to use this K2, it is clearly contaminated,” he said. “One of the chemicals is Fubinaca, which is really supposed to be, for whatever reason, knocking people down and taking them out.”

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, AB-FUBINACA was introduced as a Pfizer patent in 2009, but there are no medical or commercial uses for the drug.

Campbell said three people were are in critical condition as of 10 a.m. Friday. The total of more than 100 overdoses includes some people who received treatment, then returned to the Green — still wearing their hospital bracelets, Campbell said — and overdosed again, some up to four or five times.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., also spoke earlier in the day about what he sees as a need to address the crisis through legislation. “We need new tactics to address synthetics,” he said.

Blumenthal said “amateur chemists” who are “primarily from China and Mexico” are creating synthetic marijuana and synthetic heroin.

“At the end of the day, we need more resources, meaning money,” he said. Blumenthal recommended the federal administration “put aside the trade wars” to start a “multinational crackdown” on synthetic drugs.

Later Friday, U.S. Sen. Christopher Murphy, DConn., and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont toured Fair Haven Community Health Care at 374 Grand Ave. and talked with staff members about addiction.

Speaking to the opioid crisis, Lamont said, “What I want to learn today from you is how the governor, how the state, can be a greater, better partner for you. How perhaps if we raise the urgency of what this epidemic is, that has killed more people than Vietnam, killed more people than AIDS at its peak. It’s an epidemic that is hitting us suddenly in sporadically different places.

“I think it’s a place where you want your governor to take a lead, and that’s what I will do,” Lamont said. “First and foremost, not just shining a light on the problem, but finding ways to coordinate the best comprehensive response. Maybe that means a Cabinet-level person, a czar, somebody who helps bring together mental health, addiction services, public health, [Department of Social Services] ... work with the clinics, look at best practices around the state, work with police and fire and make sure that we have those folks at the table and we have the most comprehensive response we can.”

Murphy said the federal government must not cut back money for substance abuse prevention and treatment, noting that Congress “in a heartbeat” approved $4 billion in 2014 to fight Ebola, “when there were less than six people in the United States that had Ebola . ... We fought and clawed over three years to finally get the Congress to put up $6 billion in the last budget for an epidemic that is killing a thousand people every year in a state that represents one percent of the nation’s population. So I am so fearful that this president is taking us backward, just after we made progress moving forward,” by cutting Medicaid and by “promoting junk insurance plans” that don’t cover mental health and addiction treatment. “And he has ripped the guts out of the Affordable Care Act, driving rates up by double digits all over the country.”

Dr. Douglas Olson, vice president for clinical affairs, mentioned barriers to bringing treatment to those suffering from addiction, such as prescribers needing special registration with the state.

“Even saying, ‘Hey, you want to help with this crisis? You don’t have to pay your DEA fees for three years,” Olson said, adding that such a step would pay for itself in bringing more people into treatment.

Dr. Krystn Wagner, director of HIV and infectious disease services at the clinic, said the national and statewide focus on opioid addiction — more than 1,000 people died of opioid overdoses in 2017 in Connecticut — shouldn’t take the focus off other drugs, such as the synthetic cannabinoid that felled so many in New Haven this week.

One of her patients, she said, drinks alcohol, uses cocaine and PCP but was one of those who overdosed on K2. “It points to the need to diversify our substance abuse treatments,” she said. “The opioid epidemic has the risk of reducing our awareness of other things,” including marijuana, which she said young people view as safe but which can be laced with more dangerous drugs.

Lamont asked, “How has the crisis changed and how has your response change in the last few years?” Maya Spell, a substance abuse care coordinator at the Fair Haven clinic, said, “It’s been getting worse, unfortunately.” She said there is a lack of inpatient and detoxification beds in the health care system. “It’s one of my biggest obstacles,” Spell said.

Many of those who overdosed were treated and released and some overdosed again. “What good is that if they’re not getting any care ... afterwards?” she said.

Officials said there were 17 more overdoses as of Thursday evening, bringing the total to 114 by Friday morning.

For many in the community, however, the week’s overdoses appear to be a flashy presentation of an ongoing problem.

“This has been happening for a long time,” said a man who identified himself only as David.

David sat on a bench on the Green Thursday in front of an American Medical Response mobile response center parked just off Temple Street. On Friday, riding his bicycle through the Green, he said it would take community support to truly eradicate addiction in the city.

“All the medics, that’s a lot of money for the city,” he said. “I want people in the community helping one another.”

David said he has lived in New Haven for three years after moving here from Philadelphia, and it was the Section 8 housing-assistance program that helped him in his own journey to making responsible decisions.

“People don’t understand that these people are sick, and they would do the right thing and look for a job,” he said. “Now I can be a professional person, too.”

Sylvia Cooper, a coordinator of a new federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration-financed program called Imani Breakthrough, said aftercare is just as important in beating addiction as treatment.

Imani Breakthrough, a program created by the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services with SAMHSA federal funds, is a 12-week program for people with addiction that is based in four black churches in New Haven, Waterbury, Hartford and Bridgeport. In New Haven, the location is Varick Memorial AME Zion Church on Dixwell Avenue.

“What happened on the Green is so devastating, but it’s not new to the folks who live around it every day,” Cooper said. “Poverty and disparities, people will always be exposed to it, so we have to cope with it by dealing with the issues like lack of job opportunities and housing.”

Cooper said more than 40 people participated in the inaugural Imani Breakthrough program, and 28 completed all 12 weeks.

“Now we have to do aftercare. We want to follow people after the fact,” she said. “Some people already have housing, but the addiction doesn’t go away.”

The second session of Imani Breakthrough begins later this month, she said.

The Rev. Kelcy Steele, senior pastor at Varick, said he believes the community and the church can no longer ignore drug addiction.

“Because my church is on the corner of Dixwell, it takes nothing for me to walk out the door and look on the ground and see syringes or bags used for drugs,” Steele said. “It’s very common; it’s not hidden.”

Steele said he is grateful for the response of city police, especially as the department struggles with budget issues. Now, he said, he believes light has been shed on the issue.

“It’s just tragic and we’re definitely praying,” he said. “Anything we’re able to do on our end, we’re going to do that as community servants.”

Sam Tracy, director of the Connecticut Coalition to Regulate Marijuana, said revising the state’s drug policies could play a role in preventing future mass casualty events.

“Everyone calls it synthetic marijuana, but it is very much a misnomer,” he said. “It’s really a different product, a completely different drug.”

Tracy said people turn to cheap and accessible substitutes for marijuana because of marijuana laws.

“No one would be using these weird and significantly more dangerous drugs like K2 if marijuana was legal and regulated and available,” he said.

Tracy said many addictions, particularly to opiates, begin with painkillers or otherwise by treating pain.

“For many folks, medical marijuana can be a good alternative for chronic pain and for pain relief,” he said, “and there is zero risk for a fatal overdose.”