By Erin Delmore
Correspondent
Stronger than heroin. More powerful than morphine.
“It’s a death sentence. It’s not if. It’s when,” said Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato.
Fentanyl. A synthetic opiate used to treat cancer patients, so dangerous, you have to be careful just touching it.
“All a person needs to do is take, snort, swallow just a few grains of fentanyl, although he or she believes they’re taking heroin, and it could be deadly,” said Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge for New Jersey Carl Kotowski.
Fentanyl deaths have spiked in New Jersey. Overdoses increased nearly 300 percent between 2013 and 2014, according to the most recent data available from the state Medical Examiner’s Office.
“Since January of 2015, January through September of 2015, we’ve had an increase of 651 percent of fentanyl-related cases that had been submitted to labs in New Jersey, so the use has really increased,” Kotowski said.
“In one instance, I guess six months ago, we found the packaging, there was no heroin what so ever, it was all fentanyl. And obviously we had a huge problem with that because then we had a tremendous number of overdoses and unfortunately a lot of deaths that took place as a result of that,” Coronato said.
The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office says it alerts the public when it finds fentanyl-laced heroin on the streets. The drug is odorless, colorless — people could be purchasing it without knowing it. But they said, that’s a double-edged sword. For addicts seeking a higher high, knowing it’s out there could be a death sentence.
“The problem really is that your body is not acclimated to that strong type of opioid, again it’s a hundred times more powerful than even heroin, so what happens is your body overdoses as a result, cannot tolerate that, and shuts down,” Coronato said.
The DEA says New Jersey might have the highest purity of heroin in the U.S. at 58 percent, all because of location. A stone’s throw from three international airports and the largest port on the East Coast, the third-largest in the country. All surrounded by a network of interstate highways. The drug gets cut as it moves west.
While pharmaceutical fentanyl is used in hospitals, street drugs come in from Mexico and China or are grown in labs across the country. One gram of the pure stuff can be cut into 7,000 doses for sale.
“They’re the predators that we’re going to be going out to look for. They’re the ones, because that is the death sentence that they’re selling,” Coronato said.
Prosecutor Coronato says homicide and drug units have been able to “track back” and locate where a person who overdosed bought the drugs and “strict liability” gives the prosecution leverage: the dealer is charged with distribution and homicide. It’s yielded 13 pleas so far.
For more stories that are part of the initiative Healthy NJ: New Jersey’s Drug Addiction Crisis, click here.