New trends in substance abuse stem from dangerous lab-made synthetic drugs

By David A. Kostival

With frequent news stories focused on the current opioid crisis, we often view drug abuse as a modern-day problem which gets progressively worse with each year. And while statistics do show a steady growth in drug-related deaths over the last twenty years, the problem is not new. According to the National Library of Medicine, there was extensive drug use in the United States around the time of the first world war involving a combination of morphine, heroin, opium and cocaine.

The truth is that substance abuse evolves based on societal trends. Berks County Detective Sergeant Pasquale Leporace said one of the current trends stems from the legalization of recreational marijuana. “I think that once marijuana was legal in certain states, we saw a big trend in people wanting the marijuana from Colorado and California, even though it was twice as expensive as the marijuana that came from Mexico,” Leporace said. “I think that cut back on a lot of the money that the Mexican cartel was making on marijuana.” At that point, about 10 to 15 years ago, Pasquale explained Mexican marijuana fields were converted into poppy fields.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid which has FDA approval to treat severe pain, but over the past 10 years the drug has been made and distributed illegally. The sometimes-lethal combination of fentanyl and heroin has overwhelmingly contributed to the rise in overdose deaths.

“I think that’s when the market started getting flooded with heroin, but meth also started becoming a big product,” Leporace said. “Before that, it was very rare in cities. We saw meth mostly in the rural areas being produced by motorcycle gangs. But then about 15 years ago, Mexico started getting into producing their own meth and flooding the market with it.” Berks County Lieutenant Nelson Ortiz said meth was easier to produce than growing marijuana or heroin. “Meth is easier because it’s something that you can make in a laboratory, where with the cocaine you have to have a crop,” Ortiz said. “And you have crop seasons and that’s not as cost effective. Plus, most of the crops are not necessarily in Mexico, but in a lot of other Latin American countries.”

Ortiz said there is also greater availability throughout the county because mid-level drug dealers tended to move out of the city because they felt they were safer in surrounding municipalities. “We get a lot of cross investigations with Montgomery County, and it seems like a lot of Montgomery County people come here for their heroin or for their cocaine, or for their meth, as opposed to going to Philadelphia,” Ortiz said. “I think they feel they’re safer coming here.”

Ortiz said the drug problems do influence violent crime and that he believes it causes an uptick in minor crimes. “So that’s one of the things we focus on too, we try to go after not just an organization that’s just selling drugs, but also organizations that somehow involve some sort of violence.”

“Anytime you have heroin, there’s probably fentanyl in it,” Ortiz said. “It’s all about profits. It’s easier to produce fentanyl than to produce heroin. Sometimes people are buying what they think is heroin and it’s all fentanyl. And that’s one of the reasons why people overdose because they have no idea that’s what they’re taking.”

Ortiz said he always tells users that their next hit may be their last because they do not know what they are ingesting. “We just had a case where there were small traces of fentanyl in gummies,” Ortiz said. “So, you just don’t know. Fentanyl is being put in everything. People may think they’re taking an ecstasy pill, but it could contain all fentanyl. Anytime the user takes drugs, it’s like playing Russian roulette.”

Leporace said a local trend affecting the local community, but is also prevalent at the national level, is an uptick in fake prescription pills. “On the black market there are prescription pills which include fake OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin and I even heard of Adderall that is actually Fentanyl-based with dilutions in it, causing people to die,” Leporace said. “There’s a correlation (between the fake pills and overdose deaths) because there’s no quality control on the black market and there’s no ingredient labels.”

Another trend is the accessibility, especially to young people. “They have more availability to experiment with or they have many more products that will lead them down the path,” Leporace explained. “Youths can go to the corner bodega and get a gummy that has CBD oils, so the access from point A to point B has a multiple of steps, and it’s easier to go from step to step to step.” Leporace said that in the past, youths went from drinking alcohol to abusing hard drugs, but in today’s world the slope isn’t as steep, but rather a step-by-step slow climb.

Leporace said going forward, he believes that the synthetic drug market will continue to expand. “It’s easier and more cost effective, so I think synthetic drugs are going to overtake the marketplace,” Leporace said. “We’re slowly seeing that we don’t see heroin as much as we used to. It’s more fentanyl based.

Ortiz said there is also an increase in cocaine. “I personally thought that cartel was trying to push more meth than coke, but we are now seeing a big comeback. We’re working on cases now where kilos and kilos of cocaine are coming into Berks County.”

A positive trend going forward is that law enforcement has a different perspective. “Law enforcement likes working with organizations like the Council on Chemical Abuse,” Ortiz said. “We want to be part of the solution because we need education, and we need treatment.

“Obviously there’s some people, especially violent criminals, that need to be locked up, but users need treatment,” Ortiz added. “We’re involved in making sure that every Police Department in the county has Narcan available for drug overdoses. And we’re also involved with the Blue Cares program to make sure that these people that are revived through Narcan get a visit from a police officer and a treatment specialist.”

Because of the newest dangers involved with ingesting synthetic drugs, Leporace said parents need to interact with their kids to educate them about all of the possible negative effects.

“Expose them to the dangers of what’s out there because there are those CBD products that mimic gummy bears or some type of edible that would be attractive to a young person,” Leporace said. “You have influence over kids, to educate them and make them aware of the pitfalls.”