# 65

Fentanyl now reported as Long Island's leading cause of overdose deaths in 2016.

Report notes that 220 overdose deaths in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, in 2016, caused by Fentanyl.  Reporter mistakenly uses the term "after that he was on a mission to get high," while referencing a Central Nervous System (CNS) Depressant; which, of course, has taken the user down through nodding, sleep, coma and delivered them to death after signaling the respiratory system to perform a shutdown.

The article notes that users are taking what they believe is a "normal" dose, yet they are "falling out."  The reporter indicates that initial confirmation that the substance used is not heroin is the absence of any response when only one antidote administration of Narcan is given.  If revival occurs after two or more doses of Narcan, initial suspicion of Fentanyl is presumed until confirmation by laboratory testing.

http://www.fox5ny.com/news/226144948-story

# 64

Parents overdose on suspected heroin and die in home; unattended 5 month old baby dies from dehydration and starvation four or five days later.

In previous posts, we have read how courts have assigned custody for children of substance use disorder parents who were found in vehicles, shopping aisles and at home - but revived by Narcan.  In these examples, Society - expressing itself through the Courts - recognizes that the expected competence of so-called "adult" parents has fallen short of expected behavior of adult parents.

Why not consider issuing guardians to  all substance use disorder adults whose proponents stress are incapable of resisting the substance(s) which direct their being?

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/coroner-baby-died-days-parents-suspected-overdoses-44385094

# 63

Another mother OD'd behind the wheel of her car, child in safe seat, needle in mother's hand...revival after two doses of Narcan and child removed from mother's custody.  Mom, who previously went through "rehab," now in custody for multiple charges - including child neglect.

This late October 2016 article contains yet another photo of the 25 year-old mother, violating parole, neglecting her child and possessing illicit substances and the article again raises a debate which approaches the absurd.

On one hand, and aware that rehab treatment did not dissuade this adult from subsequent unlawful behavior, the treatment proponents make two points: first, don't shame these substance use disorder persons, treat them and; two, treatment works.

On the other hand, municipal governments and police agencies make their points:

• The photos are in public places where no one has an expectation of privacy.

• The community needs to do more than read about the overdoses and child neglect caused by illicit substances, the photos in plain view can benefit the community's effort to control and reduce the availability of such substances.

As always, readers see the booking photo, too, after two shots of Narcan succeeded in revival.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/10/27/another-parents-overdose-another-child-in-the-back-seat-a-new-norm-for-drug-users/522132373/?tid=hybrid_content_1_na&utm_term=.e2752638990c

# 62

West Virginia and DEA release previously "secret" data regarding wholesale shipments of legally produced opioids: "That amounts to 433 of the frequently abused opioid pills for every man, woman and child in the state of 1.84 million people."

Article and excerpt, below, indicate that pharmaceutical wholesalers had successfully gone to court and succeeded in blocking the release of their sales volumes in West Virginia to the public.

Data released as a result of West Virginia Attorney General law suit and DEA and Charleston Gazette-Mail and also indicates that shipments increased as opioid deaths increased.

["These numbers will shake even the most cynical observer," former Delegate Don Perdue, D-Wayne, a retired pharmacist who finished his term earlier this month, told the newspaper. "Distributors have fed their greed on human frailties and to criminal effect. There is no excuse and should be no forgiveness."

McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen Drug Co. together control about 85 percent of the U.S. drug distribution market by revenue and provided more pills to West Virginia than other wholesalers.]

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/12/20/agency-records-reportedly-show-west-virginia-flooded-with-painkillers.html?refresh=true

# 61

Another excellent Canadian article takes the reader step-by-step illustrating how Chinese Chemists and Canadian laws and drug distributers get the fatal doses into the veins/brains of knowing and unsuspecting users.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/investigations/a-killer-high-how-canada-got-addicted-tofentanyl/article29570025/

# 60

Article states the obvious, substance users have absolutely no idea regarding the qualitative or quantitative analysis of the substances they purchase and self-administer.  While the article suggests that the unanticipated presence of high-potency fentanyl is a surprise which frequently leads to death, the readers know that substances claiming to be heroin or cocaine also kill when the true potency is analyzed by toxicology units following death.

The media in North America have done their jobs, so have Medical Examiners, Toxicologists and Law Enforcement...even Television Cop shows...everyone knows that - in the world of illegal purchase/possession of substances- the mantra is buyer beware!  For more than 30 years, newspaper readers and television watchers have learned how substance users are taking large risks when they purchase unknown substances, usually from strangers.  So, ironically, in a world where all substance purchasers/users/possessors have known that the actual ingredients could produce a fatal outcome, the substance community is acting surprised when the risk is validated/confirmed.  The illicit purchasers/users/possessors and their loved ones are telling reporters that truth in packaging expectations are not being met.

The very act of entering such a world of risk illustrates that any notion of an expectation of truth in packaging has been set aside.

The surrealistic absurdity of these expectations, given a market-place where false claims are the norm, illustrate how confused persons continue to expect that someone will regulate merchants who purvey illegal substances as they go about their unlicensed, anti-social, activities.  Where is the FDA when we need them?  Trying to oversee a legal industry and protect lawful consumers...is one answer.

Someone will say that the deaths are all the result of criminalized substances and criminalizing substances (presuming that the substances are what they are marketed as and that qualitative and quantitative controls exist), all the while knowing that a substance user can self-administer a prescribed pharmaceutical opioid, issued to his grandmother, and still have the respiration center in his brain perform a shutdown of its system.

The risks in the user's world are many but he is undeterred.  When the case finally becomes strong enough, perhaps someday, persons having substance use disorder will be surrounded by their loved ones who will confess to a judge that the user is helpless and in need of formal guardianship.  Until then, adults will be permitted to enter high-risk worlds which are increasingly becoming fatal worlds.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-silent-killer-overdose-victims-often-dont-even-know-theyve-consumed-fentanyl

# 59

Saddest, but best, article on carfentanil.  15 deaths attributed to carfentanil in Alberta.  Article addresses illegal shipments - from China- being seized in Canada...one containing the equivalent to kill 50M users.  Article also recognizes Medical Examiner who has developed a blood test which is positive for carfentanil after being drawn at autopsy.

The below article is very well researched and expands on prior posts regarding the elephant tranquilizer- carfentanil.  It includes photos and interviews; for example, a Canadian veterinarian who is seen preparing a tranquilizer dart for subduing Buffalo and the extreme steps he takes before getting anywhere near carfentanil.

The article highlights the dangers to frontline guardians who search packages at airports and borders, crime scenes, lab workers, etc. and provides a basis against which objective readers can consider the fatal risks packagers, distributers and users knowingly - or unknowingly- take when they enter a high risk world which they know can include mislabeled powders and mislabeled pills.  That world also includes a substance which may even overpower Narcan, depriving the users of the second chance which many have come to expect.

The stories, found in the article, of grieving parents even include ones in which a mother directly asked her son to stay inside the range of his prior drug usage and not approach fentanyl.

Excellent expose for much of the world.

 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-carfentanil-deaths-1.3887254

# 58

Chicago Tribune article notes how overdose deaths in 2016 America exceed 50,000 (the most ever); attribute 9,580 to illicit Fentanyl.

Direct analysis of crisis no longer possible since criminal distributors are selling miss-labelled products of death to law breakers who are possessing and self-administering either heroin ( controlled substance) or Fentanyl (controlled substance which requires a prescription).

In an unusual phenomenon, well intentioned supporters of persons diagnosed as having substance use disorder are learning that their simple analysis is more complex.  They are finding that such disabled persons can die because of the trust they place in strangers- criminal distributors who chase the dollar and sell opioids (30-100 times more potent than Heroin) as organic heroin.

The scripted defense for substance use disorder persons has been that they have a medical need and that they should be treated as patients, not criminals because of their use.

The defense begins to collapse when they are reminded that Federal and State laws do not prohibit use, but possession.  The defense crashes when commerce for medical needs results in death because juveniles and adults do not follow a medical path to meet their medical needs and, instead, enter the criminal world.

In the Criminal Justice world, American Judges initially see persons as juvenile or adult.  While adults have all of the rights and privileges of society, they also have the responsibilities and duties of citizenship.  They can be deemed incompetent, after a hearing, otherwise adults are treated as adults.

As an increasing tally of self-administering adult's overdose deaths climbs, the advocates may find refuge in judges if their argument is persuasive for guardianship.  Until then, substance use disorder adults are accepted as fully responsible members of society and carving out an exemption in the criminal law regarding illegal possession for such adults is unlikely.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-us-overdose-deaths-20161208-story.html

# 57

Fentanyl-caused overdose deaths fill Vancouver morgues and Funeral Homes pitch-in.

In the below article dated 12/6/2016, 60% of 622 drug overdose deaths during the first 10 months of 2016 were found to be caused by Fentanyl for all of British Columbia.  The 622 figure over ten months is up from 510 for all of 2015.



http://www.straight.com/news/840756/overdose-deaths-involving-fentanyl-fill-vancouver-morgues-capacity

# 56

Woman in Vancouver, BC, addresses need for Narcan treatment and establishes two tents in alleys for response/treatment.

The below article indicates that a citizen is meeting a medical need for overdose antidotes and she funds her effort through go-fund-me contributions.



http://www.straight.com/life/840996/working-outside-law-sarah-blyth-leads-grassroots-response-overdose-epidemic

# 55

December 2016 article from Philadelphia reports rash of heroin overdose deaths from 90% purity and also reports that Fentanyl deaths "skyrocket 636%."

"This self-confident generation has produced more alcoholics, more drug addicts, more criminals, more wars, more broken homes, more assaults, more embezzlements, more murders, and more suicides...it is time all of us...begin to take stock of our failures, blunders, and costly mistakes.  It is about time that we place less confidence in ourselves and more trust and faith in God."  Billy Graham 1955.

In continuing to perpetrate a false-myth, the reporters in the article continue to use the term "get high" in reference to a substance which is a Central Nervous System (CNS) Depressant...which takes all users "low" and some users on an elevator ride which descends from consciousness through sleep, coma and arrives at death.  All opioids kill/deaden pain, slow/depress respiration, slow heart rate, constrict the pupils and cause constipation, in sufficient levels, these substances control the respiration center of the brain telling it to terminate respiring.

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Heroin-Overdose-Philadelphia-Deaths-Kensington-North-Philadelphia-Epidemic-Badlands-Bad-Batch-404678145.html

# 54

Federal Court in Palm Beach County, Florida hands down 30 year sentence for career drug distributor whose sale of Fentanyl (as Heroin) to a known Heroin addict resulted in Fentanyl-induced overdose death.

In the below article from December 2, 2016, the defense attempted to place part of the cause onto the decedent, saying that he was a Heroin addict who purchased the falsely-labelled substance.  The prosecutor and Court disagreed and handed down a sentence which exceeded the guideline of 20 years.

The article also reported that Palm Beach County's overdose rate currently stands at 425% above the previous year.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-fentanyl-dealer-death-20161202-story.html

# 53

Follow-up story relating to post # 41

Post # 41 headlined a grotesque video of a couple, in their 60's, who were filmed during a post-Heroin-snorting spell when they had no consciousness and no control over their bodies.

The online video went viral and resulted in a television station picking-up the story.  The televised story touched the couple's daughter; on her birthday.  The daughter, also a mother, had turned her back on her parents after years of attempting to direct them to the help they have needed.  The daughter contacted the television station and a rehabilitation center offered to provide scholarships to both parents; the father in Mississippi and the mother in Massachusetts.  The article reports that both substance use disorder patients have seen the original video and that the father has completed his rehab and is living in a half-way house while the mother is still recovering in treatment.

The article, in keeping with a promise to report on whether the substance was not Heroin, has the father stating that they snorted heroin immediately prior to the video.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/30/health/heroin-overdose-facebook-live-couple/index.html