Local law enforcement officials said they have seen more fentanyl across Owensboro and Daviess County in recent months, while the Daviess County Coroner’s Office said fentanyl-related deaths have also increased in 2020.
Officials said fentanyl — a substance used to treat severe pain — is being cut into fake prescription opioid pills, causing those who ingest them to overdose and in severe cases die.
According to National Institutes of Health Order Publications, fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid analgesic that is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent. It is a Schedule II prescription drug.
County Coroner Jeff Jones said his office has seen a definite uptick in fentanyl-related deaths this year.
“We’ve had 3-4 cases this past year that have been fentanyl-related,” Jones said. “Compared to previous years, that’s an increase.”
Meanwhile, Owensboro Police Department Public Information Officer Andrew Boggess said OPD has been seeing an increase of fentanyl use and possession for five months straight.
Daviess County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Major Barry Smith said his department saw a small increase of fentanyl — mainly due to a methamphetamine supply decrease stemming from COVID-19 and travel restrictions — earlier in the year.
“The danger continues of counterfeit pain medicine that could contain fentanyl and fentanyl-laced illicit drugs,” he said.
Unlike other drugs, fentanyl isn’t normally taken by itself. Instead, other drugs such as heroin and methamphetamine are often laced with trace amounts of it. According to Foundation for a Drug-Free World, a dose of fentanyl is considered to be lethal at 3 milligrams, compared to 30 milligrams of heroin.
Now, pills are being altered with the deadly substance, Boggess said. When OPD first noticed the increase of fentanyl and other similar drugs in the area, a press release was sent out to local news outlets warning the community about the issue.
“We have multiple cases open and ongoing pertaining to overdoses,” Boggess said. “There are a lot of investigations going on right now with overdoses where a person may have taken pills and not known what they were made of. It’s concerning because these overdoses can be fatal.”
Jones said the vast majority of toxicology reports pertaining to those who’ve died of a fentanyl overdose have contained multiple drugs.
“It’s hard to know if they’re laced with fentanyl, if it’s a combination of drugs,” he said. “Fentanyl is the primary cause of death in all of these cases.”
Boggess said OPD officers have begun carrying naloxone nasal spray, or Narcan, and it has prevented a number of overdoses from turning deadly.
“With overdoses, timing is extremely crucial,” he said.
Boggess also said OPD isn’t sure at this time where the fentanyl-laced pills are coming from. In Owensboro and Daviess County, methamphetamine laced with fentanyl has been believed to have been primarily manufactured by the Mexican cartel.
Though OPD has not seen a significant decrease in fentanyl-laced meth, the primary concern this time around is the frequency in which fentanyl has been discovered across the community.
“An important distinction here is, these pills are being purchased on the street level, not at the pharmacy,” Boggess said. “You don’t ever know what you’re really getting. It’s extremely potent in small quantities.”
