Pubdate: Fri, 16 Jun 2006
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2006 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Michael Tarm, Associated Press Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

AMID FENTANYL DEATHS, ADDICTS KEEP USING

CHICAGO  - A self-described drug addict stood by a vacant lot on the 
city's South Side and pointed down the block. There, he says, more 
than a dozen of his friends and acquaintances died after using heroin 
laced with a strong painkiller.

"Joe died down there, and then there was Rita, Cherlyn, Marvin died 
somewhere over there - and Chico there," said Don Howard, 59, flanked 
by rows of derelict buildings and a sign atop a lamppost that read, 
"Chicago Blues District."

Several miles away, police and drug enforcement officials ended two 
days of discussions on the possible source of the bad heroin that 
killed Howard's friends and at least 100 others from Chicago to Philadelphia.

"In my almost 30 years of law enforcement experience, I haven't seen 
a threat that concerns me this much," said Tim Ogden, an agent with 
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Chicago office. "Fentanyl 
is a very, very potent substance."

The summit that ended Thursday provided officials from 12 states and 
Washington, D.C., the chance to coordinate their investigations into 
the spike of fentanyl-related deaths since the beginning of this 
year, Ogden said at a news conference.

Fentanyl is a legally produced prescription painkiller that is 80 
times stronger than morphine. But the type of fentanyl currently 
being mixed with heroin is most likely manufactured in illicit labs, 
Ogden said.

He said that just 125 micrograms of the illegal fentanyl - the 
equivalent of a few grains of salt - are more than enough to kill.

"I view fentanyl use as taking a six (chamber) revolver, putting five 
bullets in it, putting it to your temple and pulling the trigger," he said.

There were outbreaks of fentanyl-laced heroin in the '80s and early 
'90s, said Arlington, Va.-based DEA spokeswoman Mary Irene Cooper, 
who was in Chicago for the meeting. The difference is that the 
outbreaks aren't isolated this time to one city.

"We're trying to figure out why it's spreading so widely," she said.

Its deadliness doesn't appear to have dissuaded hardened drug addicts.

After Chicago police publicized one street corner where samples of 
fentanyl-laced heroin had been handed out - thinking addicts would 
steer clear of the area - drug users flocked there hoping to score 
free heroin, Police Supt. Philip Cline said.

"We have willing victims here," he said. "That's part of the problem."

In Chicago, there have been more than 60 confirmed fentanyl overdoses 
since April, 2005, with the vast majority of them coming this year, 
the DEA said. Deaths caused by fentanyl-laced drugs have also been 
reported in Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 
Delaware and Maryland.

Howard said there is less fear among many addicts than non-addicts 
might presume.

"Some addicts are frightened, but others aren't," he said. "They just 
feel that if it's their time, it's their time."

"Suicidal behavior comes from being an addict," agreed Francois 
Seets, a 58-year-old recovering addict from Chicago. "They think 
they're immortal. ... And they think it (the fentanyl contamination) 
will pass."

So infinitesimal are the amounts of fentanyl, Seets said, that there 
is virtually no way of determining whether a bag of heroin is laced 
with it. The fentanyl wouldn't affect the taste or look of the 
narcotic, he said.

"You wouldn't know it's bad until you collapse," he said.

Howard, who said he struggles to scrape together the $10 it costs for 
a small bag of heroin, said he doesn't turn down free samples of 
heroin - even though such samples have been linked to the recent 
fentanyl deaths.

But he does take precautions.

Before settling down to shoot up a sample with friends, "I let 
somebody else go first to be sure," Howard said.

Seets said the fentanyl outbreak does serve as an inspiration to him, 
driving home the potentially deadly consequences of a relapse.

"It makes me understand I am mortal," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman