Fentanyl Claims Over Thousand American Lives In Two Years

Overdose of an illegal version of the powerful prescription painkiller fentanyl claimed the lives of 1,013 Americans between April 2005 and March 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published Thursday.

Some deaths from illegal fentanyl are still reported, but the outbreak was largely contained after law enforcement authorities shut down a fentanyl-making plant in Toluca, Mexico, in May 2006, according to Dr. T. Stephen Jones, the study's lead author.

"It almost disappeared entirely. The shutting down of the Toluca facility was probably a major factor," said Jones, a consultant retired from the CDC.

The grave proportions of the fentanyl overdoses first came to light in Chicago in 2005. Those who survived said they had been consuming free heroin supplied by new drug dealers in orange and pink plastic bags.

The July issue of Clinical Toxicology contains a summarized version of the Chicago cases. Hundreds of deaths from the drug gradually hit the headlines. "This was really an epidemic," said Dr. Steven Marcus, the executive director of New Jersey's poison control center and a co-writer of the latest report.

Marcus reported the problem to federal officials following a cluster of overdoses that emerged in Camden, N.J., emergency rooms in April 2006. More clusters came to light in Philadelphia, Detroit and other cities.

Marcus said that the investigation was difficult, what with the reluctance of some health officials to probe deaths related to illicit drugs. "The response when I deal with public health officials is 'Drug abuse is a dangerous habit, and drug abusers know it's a dangerous habit, so why are we making a big deal out of it?'" he said.

The report makes a distinction between deaths due to illegally made fentanyl and those due to its illicit use. As autopsy reports do not reveal the difference, investigators had to rely on drugs found at the scene and other circumstantial evidence to separate the two.

The tally covers only two states — New Jersey and Delaware — and the cities of Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and St. Louis.

Fentanyl is a prescription painkiller, frequently prescribed for cancerdefine patients. But it also is a powerful narcotic, 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin.

Illegal versions of the drug are sold as a powder, often mixed with cocaine or heroin, and is also used as a replacement for heroin. Some heroin addicts are even unaware that fentanyl is a component of the substance they inject into their system, experts say.

Earlier, some lesser outbreaks of fentanyl-associated deaths in drug addicts had been reported. Prominent among these early outbreaks was "China White" of the 1980s, which was so lethal that drug users dropped dead instantly.

National health statistics reveal that the death rate due to unintentional drug poisonings roughly doubled through 1999 to 2005.