Heroin, cancer drug mix kills 12

Wayne Co. warning issued

BY BEN SCHMITT, KIM NORRIS and NIRAJ WARIKOO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

May 20, 2006

At least 12 people died in 24 hours Thursday and Friday in Wayne County from a potent prescription drug mixed with heroin and cocaine, said officials who expect more deaths over the weekend.

Officials issued an alert late Friday, saying they feared drug dealers were adding fentanyl, a powerful drug prescribed to cancer patients, to heroin and cocaine to boost the high for their customers. The victims ranged in age from 20 to 45 and were found in crack houses and on the streets in Detroit, Dearborn Heights, Lincoln Park, Redford and Westland. Eight deaths were reported Friday and four on Thursday, mostly from a heroin-fentanyl mix. Names of victims were not released. Hospitals and authorities in Oakland and Macomb counties reported no similar deaths.

Fentanyl is supposed to be used only by those suffering from around-the-clock pain. If consumed in large amounts, it can cause breathing problems, possibly fatal, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Like heroin, fentanyl can act as a strong sedative, giving users a drowsy high. But it's potentially more dangerous. Last year, the FDA issued a public warning about inappropriate use of the prescription drug.

From September through March, the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed 106 drug deaths, the majority linked to combinations of fentanyl and heroin. But the increase in deaths Thursday and Friday prompted county and state officials to announce a health alert Friday.

Officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta are headed to Wayne County on Monday to assess the problem, said Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano.

"We are not trying to have panic, but this is a very serious public health issue," Ficano said Friday. "The dramatic spike within the past 24 hours shows that there's a very lethal amount that is being distributed on the street at this very moment."

T.J. Bucholz, spokesman for the state Department of Community Health, said the CDC is interested in Detroit's cases because of similar events reported in other cities.

The CDC is particularly interested in whether the Detroit drugs may have come from Chicago, where there have been reports of fentanyl-laced heroin causing overdoses and death, Bucholz said.

Similar outbreaks of deaths linked to mixtures of fentanyl and heroin were reported last weekend in the Philadelphia area.

Last weekend, 22 people went to Chicago hospitals after overdosing on the fentanyl-heroin mix.

Two CDC officials said Friday they were unaware the agency was sending investigators to Detroit. The CDC typically does not investigate Fentanyl-related deaths.

"We have no information about CDC being asked to investigate," said agency spokeswoman Bernadette Burden. Oakland County Medical Examiner Ljubisa Dragovic called the Wayne County deaths "significant" and said they could indicate people were getting their drugs from the same source.

"That calls for looking at the location" of the victims, "whether they were from the same neighborhood or dope house to see if there is any geographic pattern. Then you would have to focus on the suppliers."

Ficano and Chief Wayne County Medical Examiner Carl Schmidt said there is a good chance that street dealers don't know what fatal mixture lies in the drug packages they are selling. Schmidt said victims are injecting or snorting the drugs.

Area hospitals, law enforcement agencies and EMS networks have been notified of the drug crisis.

"Drug use does dramatically go up on the weekends, both recreational and those of addiction," Ficano said. "From what I understand it's almost an instantaneous death when you take it with the combination."

Ficano said he's also concerned that people who injected drugs could be lying dead, undiscovered, in crack houses or drug dens. Michele Reid, Wayne County's medical director of mental health services, said there is treatment for people who overdose on the drug if they get to an emergency room immediately.

Those who take the drug mixture may notice extreme euphoria followed by difficulty walking, or a deep slumber accompanied by heavy snoring, she said.

Major dealers may be cutting the drugs with fentanyl to give their product a better boost.

"It's competitive," Ficano said. "They can brag that they have the substance that gives you a better high. It's capitalism."

Fentanyl, first made in Belgium in the late 1950s, can be about 80 times more powerful than morphine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Today the potent prescription painkiller is dispensed in the form of a patch, say federal officials.

In 2003, the last year for available U.S. figures, there were 418 deaths in Wayne, Macomb and Oakland counties from opiates, a drug category that includes Fentanyl, other prescription drugs like OxyContin and heroin. Out of those 418 deaths, 72 were from heroin. One variation of fentanyl is sometimes known as China White, according to medical experts.

A national health official said the number of deaths in Detroit is high.

"That's a lot," said Leah Young, spokeswoman for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Contact BEN SCHMITT at 313-223-4296 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Staff writer Jack Kresnak and librarian Patrice Williams contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.