Pubdate: Wed, 21 Jun 2006
Source: Philadelphia Daily News (PA)
Copyright: 2006 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.
Contact: http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/contact-us/feedback-np2/
Website: http://www.phillynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/339
Author: Kitty Caparella
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

CITY'S MOST PERILOUS DRUG - FENTANYL

"Wit' or wit'out," the usual phrase to order a South Philly 
cheesesteak with or without onions, has taken on a deadly new meaning.

Drug dealers are using the expression to ask customers whether they 
want illicit heroin - or cocaine - with or without fentanyl, a 
synthetic opiate 40 to 100 times more powerful than morphine.

"It's deadly. The push of a syringe is like pulling a trigger," said 
U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan, of the fatal drug mixture that has led 
to as many as 70 deaths and up to 220 overdoses in the Philadelphia 
and South Jersey area since April.

Fentanyl, the new "drug du jour," has replaced oxycontin as the 
primary dangerous drug throughout the city, officials said. Last 
Friday, at least 12 abusers overdosed on the deadly mix in Camden, 
and it has recently shown up in Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Delaware.

Yesterday, Meehan, District Attorney Lynne Abraham and others jointly 
announced that city, state and federal law-enforcement and 
health-care agencies in Philadelphia and South Jersey had banded 
together to crack down on what is rapidly emerging as a national 
fentanyl crisis.

The top federal and city prosecutors vowed that any drug dealer who 
sells fentanyl-laced street drugs that result in death would be 
charged with third-degree murder.

Law-enforcement and health-care agencies are reporting known drug 
sales, emergency-room drug responses, coroner's reports and other 
information to the Philadelphia/Camden High Intensity Drug 
Trafficking Area to be analyzed.

Authorities expect to use that intelligence to combat 
fentanyl-related street sales, find potential clandestine labs and 
reduce drug-related deaths and overdoses.

Abraham said officials debated whether to announce the public-health 
warning because it could "perversely" increase deaths and overdoses 
by junkies "seeking a bigger bang."

She said she would "not be surprised if people go out and ask for it 
by name or content."

These drug addicts "need to be in treatment," said Roland Lamb, 
director of addiction services in the city Department of Mental 
Health and Retardation.

Drug abusers can get help by calling a toll-free number, 
1-888-545-2600, to enter one of 180 drug-treatment or detox 
facilities in the area, where an average of 50 beds have been 
available in the last year.

Abraham said abusers charged with drug offenses can opt for the 
city's drug court as an alternative to trial and enter a treatment 
facility as a way to turn their lives around.

Fentanyl is usually prescribed for pain management during surgery and 
for chronic pain when morphine no longer works.

But the fentanyl sold here is being manufactured in clandestine drug 
labs, said Jack Kassom, special agent-in-charge of the Philadelphia 
Drug Enforcement Administration office.

The DEA tied one batch of fentanyl to a Mexican distributor, he 
added. Agents are looking at whether the fentanyl sold here came from 
a lab shut down on May 20 in Toluca, Mexico, or another clandestine lab.

When abusers buy heroin, they don't know if it is laced with 
fentanyl, said Kassom. "People are dying with the needles stuck in 
their arms," he said.

The Philadelphia/Camden HIDTA was first to spot the deadly trend in 
April, and has since issued four bulletins warning of the emerging drug problem.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman