Over the last decade, America has been struggling with a heroin epidemic. And Houston was no exception. In fact, like other major cities, Houston also witnessed that those who were overdosing were not the homeless in back alleys, but instead young 20 year olds who died in the wealthy golf homes of their parents (as this Free Press Houston article suggests).
And just like the rest of the country, Houston is also following another trend when it comes to heroin – that is, the choice of fentanyl over heroin. Acetyl fentanyl is an opiate that is mixed into street drugs and marketed as heroin. It was approved for medical use in the United States, but has been abused and now sold on the streets.
Acetyl fentanyl can be up to 50 times more powerful than heroin and up to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the National Institute for Drug Abuse. In fact, just a small amount can be fatal. Users typically use it intravenously as a direct substitute for heroin or painkillers. And, in some cases, users are seeking out fentanyl directly. They want the strongest and best high they can find.
In other cases, someone who is illegally buying heroin might later discover that the drug was laced with fentanyl. When fentanyl is used as a lace with heroin, it often happens without the user’s knowledge. And if that person later needs treatment, the presence of fentanyl in a person’s system requires larger or additional emergency treatment to keep the person alive.
As John Stogner, Ph.D. of the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at the University of North Carolina pointed out, ” It’s never good to lose time between overdose and treatment.” And the presence of fentanyl without the user’s knowledge can create delays in treating an overdose.
Yet, more and more addicts are seeking out fentanyl directly. And this is true in Houston as well. Fentanyl has been used in medical settings since the 1960’s as a way to treat extreme pain. However, it has seeped into the United States from Mexico illicitly and has been becoming the next opiate trend. According to this Houston Chronicle article, those bringing the drug into the country have found a way to make fentanyl more cheaply and easily than heroin. And because the demand is growing in the United States, they are manufacturing it at high speeds.
Public health officials did not connect opiate overdoses with the presence of fentanyl at first. However, as they examine spikes of emergency room visits and overdoses in recent years, they recognize that many of those overdoses may be due to the use of fentanyl – or least due to the fact that the heroin was spiked with fentanyl. It was in 2006 that public health officials began to notice that fentanyl was becoming more and more responsible for the deaths of patients.
The challenge right now is that there are more and more opiate overdoses that appear to be because of fentanyl but it’s unclear whether there’s a rise of the amount of fentanyl in the country or because medical professionals are doing more testing and reporting when finding the drug in a person’s system. When a person dies of fentanyl, a special toxicology test is required to detect fentanyl. Prior to recent years, most coroners and crime labs did not have a reason to request the test that detects fentanyl.
It’s important that anyone using opiates illegally understand the danger of acetyl fentanyl innocuously being mixed into their drug purchase. Those addicted to opiates may need some education on the types of illicit forms of opiates and which are fatal and why. Because those suffering from this epidemic do not match the stereotypical image of someone addicted to heroin, educating addicts can take place via the radio, television, and even on college campuses. In this way, family members might also be exposed to the education.
If you or someone you know is using an opiate of any kind illicitly, you may be at risk for losing your life or the life of a loved one or family member. Fentanyl is a dangerous substitute for heroin. To avoid the loss of life, addiction, and physical harm, contact our confidential intake specialists today.