Pubdate: Fri, 16 Jun 2006
Source: Chicago Defender (IL)
Copyright: 2006 Chicago Defender
Contact:  http://www.chicagodefender.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3781
Author: Michael Tarm
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

AMID FENTANYL DEATHS, INVESTIGATION, ADDICTS KEEP USING

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

"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 from around 
the country ended two days of discussions Thursday on the possible 
source of the bad heroin that killed Don'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 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.

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.

Fentanyl is a legally produced prescription pain killer. But the type 
of fentanyl currently being mixed with heroin is most likely 
manufactured in illicit labs, Ogden said.

Ogden 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.

Yet, 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 sold - thinking addicts would steer 
clear of the area - drug users flocked there hoping to pocket free 
heroin, Police Supt. Philip Cline said.   Share your thoughts on this 
story on the ChicagoDefender.com message board.

"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. Detroit, Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware have 
also reported an uptick in fentanyl deaths.

Howard, who also goes by the nickname "Moon," agreed 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, said Seets, that there 
is virtually no way of determining whether a bag of heroin is laced 
with it. The fentanyl, he said, wouldn't affect the taste or look of 
the narcotic.

"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