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Fentanyl: Fast, Frugal, and Fatal: Oregon is facing a Fentanyl epidemic. Here’s what you need to know about the drug
Fentanyl: Fast, Frugal, and Fatal
OREGON IS FACING A FENTANYL EPIDEMIC. HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE DRUG.
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By Tori Thorp and Brogan O’Hare Photos by Tori Thorp
IN RECENT YEARS, the fentanyl crisis in Linn County has worsened, with as many as two out of every five street-bought pills containing a lethal dose of the drug: just two milligrams. The community is seeing a serious increase in overdose cases and street-drugs testing positive for lethal amounts of fentanyl. Here’s an analysis of what this all means.
JJUST 76.4 MILES
FROM WEST lies McDaniel High School, where two students lost their lives to suspected accidental drug overdoses on March 6 and 7 of 2022. The drug? Fentanyl. During a presentation hosted by the Albany Police Department on April 12, officers from the Linn Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team educated a full conference room of community members about the drug and its effects in the Linn county area. They described Fentanyl as a synthetic opioid, and while it can be used in clinical settings and to treat serious pain, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that it can be “up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine,” giving it its addictive nature. “The potency and addiction associated with fentanyl is so high,” said School Resource Officer Curtis Bell, “fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, it doesn’t rely on Mother Nature, it’s less expensive to make. And so the potency can be much greater.” Potency isn’t the only issue that fentanyl presents. The extreme effects of the drug present a problem because of how available it is to dealers as a cheap, unscented, maskable “filler” for counterfeit pills such as Xanax, Prozac, and other off-the-street opioids and stimulants. In some cases, even off-the-street marijuana has tested positive for fentanyl. Bell explained that the sheer diversity of the drug is contributing to the frequency of it being seen in Linn county among all age groups. “I don’t see it affecting one demographic more than the other. And that’s what’s so frightening about it,” Bell said. “it’s from age eight, nine, all the way up to 90. All types of people.” At the end of 2019, per the United States Drug Enforcement Admin-
istration (DEA), the overdose death rates in adolescent age groups increased by 35 percent, with a total of 70,630 deaths in ages five to 14. Bell suggests that the commonly seen pill form makes fentanyl-laced counterfeit drugs more appealing to the younger demographic. Even students looking for something as innocent as anxiety relief have the potential to overdose on a street version of prescription medication. So what is the solution to addiction? Well, there is no definitive answer. Officer Bell believes that a possible one stems through communication. “Speak truth to each other,” Bell said, “As a community, have open and honest discussions, okay? Communication is really what gets us down the road on any topic, and understanding all the elements that are in play.” Bell continues to say that “the remedies are not incarceration,” but rather “addiction therapies.” Barry Collins, a mental health specialist, works at Linn Alcohol & Drug Treatment. The treatment center offers adolescent as well as adult programs, ensuring confidentiality in both. The adolescent program meets from 3pm to 5pm every Wednesday, and offers transportation to the facility as well. Collins went on to say it was low-cost, as well as more focused on rehabilitation rather than punishment. “There is help out there if you want help. It’s not like it was 40 years ago, where there was just very little help to be found. There is a way to get involved in treatment programs. And some of them are very willing to not worry about finances.” Drug abuse is a scary topic, but it’s one that needs to be talked about. Finding reliable information through resources like the CDC, DEA, and NIH are good steps. Educating the public on these dangers is essential in ensuring that our country’s war on drugs doesn’t remain a losing one. By the time you’re a senior in high school, the CDC reports that about two-thirds of your peers will have tried alcohol, half will have used marijuana, and roughly twenty percent will have used prescription drugs not prescribed to them. “Look out for each other,” Officer Bell says, “You guys are at that age where you’re making your own decisions. And my hope is just that you would make wise decisions that will keep you alive.”
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Hotline: 1-800-662-4357
CCloser Than You Think ONE STUDENT’S EXPERIENCE WITH OVERDOSE AND ADDICTION By Hayden Mickelberry as told to Tori Thorp Edited for length and clarity
WHEN I WAS ABOUT TEN, my uncle had what my parents told us was a seizure. It was actually an overdose. My uncle struggles with alcoholism, a dependency on marijuana, and occasionally hard drug abuse like heroin. I watched him go through serious changes from the time I was just a kid, and it’s only gotten more difficult for him to overcome: his mood swings, his anger issues, his alarming and overbearing highs. We were at my grandparents’ house, and he and my grandpa were watching soccer. Then… I hear my grandpa start yelling, so me and my sister come into the room to see what’s going on. We see my uncle there, seizing up and convulsing. My grandma called 911, and we just watched as one of my other uncles tried to help him. My sister and I were ushered to the next room, but we could still hear him thrashing around, losing control, hitting things with his arms. The paramedics eventually arrived, and we watched him be taken away on a stretcher. I don’t remember a lot of that day, just that moment. Initially, I was told it was just a seizure. He was at the hospital overnight, and when he came back, everything went back to normal. We just kind of forgot about it until a few months later, when me and my sister started talking about it. I brought it up, just remembering the event. That’s when my mom explained it to us—that’s when I found out what drugs could do to a person, what an overdose could do. We had known that he had done drugs before, but especially when we were younger, my uncle tried to conceal it. After that day, it became a lot more obvious. He would pour whiskey into his drinks in the morning, and get high consistently. Because of his addiction he can’t get a job, he can’t be on a schedule, and his anxiety controls him. He had to live with us for a couple of years. It got to a point where my family was living paycheck to paycheck because he was spending all of my mom’s money. We had to kick him out and send him back to live with our grandparents in Arizona. He’s been back for a few months at a time when he thinks he can start a new life. Then it gets bad again, and he has to leave for Arizona — a cycle that just hasn’t ended yet. It’s gone on for too long, and it’s affected too many things. Drugs aren’t the only thing it’s about anymore, it’s evolved into violence. He’s able to own a gun. It gets really scary sometimes because on drugs he’ll get incredibly angry. He’s not a responsible person with his gun, and that’s terrifying to me. I can’t even look at a gun anymore without my heart pounding, my hands getting sweaty. Recently, we went to visit my grandparents in Tucson for Christmas, where he lives with them. There’s this event called “Winterhaven,” and the whole neighborhood gets into it; they put up lights and have a competition for the best decorations. Normally, there are police officers at each of the intersections to direct people and make sure everyone is going where they need to because it gets so packed. For some reason, there was one intersection where there was no police officer. It was chaos. We were trying to get through the intersection, my uncle was in the car, and all of us were getting kind of frustrated with the traffic. There was a gas station to the left of us, and this guy came in through the station and cut in front of us, skipping the whole chaotic intersection that we had just waited 35 minutes to try to get through. That’s when my uncle started yelling, threatening the guy. Now they’re both yelling, dead set on fighting each other. My uncle keeps a pistol on his ankle, and he starts to pull it out. He points it at the man, and the guy immediately starts trying to deescalate the situation and apologize, all the while we’re trying to get my intoxicated uncle to stop threatening him with a gun. Finally, we pulled him back to the car, and my sister and I sat there for a moment, processing. Then we left. We walked to my grandparents’ house because we just didn’t feel comfortable being in a car with him. It was terrifying, seeing someone I’m so close to holding a gun up to another person. There have also been some scares where he has threatened his own life because of how depressed he can get. We’ve had to try to hide his gun from
NARCAN, which is available in nasal-spray form for free at Samaritan Treatment and Recovery or by prescription, has the potential to postpone the effects of a serious overdose in order to call an ambulance or get to the hospital in time to save a life.
him a few times. I like to talk about things with him. He’s really smart, which is sad because he wanted to go to school to be a paramedic, like his brother. But addiction can change a lot. He could have had a very successful life, but he just didn’t. I don’t know exactly how the subject gets brought up, but we’ll occasionally talk about his addiction in our conversations. He would talk about how he doesn’t like that he’s in this situation, and he’d like to get out of it, but he just doesn’t know how. He’s tried so many times and it’s just not working, and this is how he’s lived his life for the past 15 years. It’s not something that’s easy or straightforward to overcome. I first saw the news about the fentanyl epidemic on Instagram, from The Whirlwind post. That kind of news scares me, of course it does. Addiction is not an issue that the minority of people have experience with. It’s widespread, and it’s serious. When there’s such a high concentration of such a deadly drug in something that so many people have access to—it just makes addiction even more traumatizing.
FENTANYL IS ORIGINALLY a painkiller found in hospitals. It started as a synthetic opiod 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine. It has been legitimately used as a pain reliever for cancer patients, general anesthesia and sedation. In clinical settings, the dosages are monitored and regulated by professionals. LINN COUNTY is considered a “HIDA,” or a “High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area,” because of it’s proximity to Highway 20 and I5. The HIDA route that Linn County lies on is one explanation for the surge in overdose cases seen in recent years.
ONE PRECATION that community members can take in order to ensure they are prepared in the event of an overdose is to carry NARCAN, a nasal-spray form treatment with the potential to save a life. NARCAN works by blocking the body’s opiod receptors for a temperary fix to overdose. You may need to use more than one in the event of an overdose. Find NARCAN for free from Samaritan Treatment and Recovery Services or get it as a prescription from your primary care physician.
Tinfoil with brown streaks from smoking the fumes of opiods in a practice called “chasing the dragon.”
