ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control reported drug overdoses have claimed more than 932,000 lives in the past 21 years, and the drug overdose crisis continues to worsen.
In 2020, the rate of deaths accelerated and increased 31 percent from 2019. Synthetic opioids, such as illicitly manufactured fentanyl, continue to contribute to the majority of opioid-induced overdose deaths.
Liberal Police Chief Chet Pinkston said while fentanyl’s intended use is for medicinal purposes, it is now produced illicitly by drug cartels and brought into the U.S. through smuggling rounds.
“It’s mixed typically with other drugs,” he said.
This is where Pinkston said the fentanyl problem lies.
“The people who are mixing these drugs are not operating ISO 9000 rated labs,” he said. “They’re doing this in kitchens, garages, basements, and they’re simply mixing it to the best of their understanding of how to mix it. There’s no thorough vetting, no quality control, nothing in regards to what level of this mixed drug you’re going to get, and that’s where the problem lies.”
Pinkston said with some batches of pills containing small amounts of fentanyl, two people can experience different effects from the same batch.
“If you and I each take a pill, you may have a very small amount in your part from where it was grabbed in the batch, and I may have a larger amount from my part that was grabbed from that same batch,” he said.
Overall, Pinkston said fentanyl is not seen in mass amounts, and from this perspective, it is harder to detect than other drugs.
“It only takes a small amount to be lethal,” he said. “You typically have a smaller amount in the sample you’re taking, especially if you’re an illicit drug user. Two milligrams is a lethal dose of fentanyl. It does not take much in that pill.”
Though use of fentanyl is lower in Southwest Kansas than other parts of the country, Seward County Attorney Russell Hasenbank did say the area is seeing a steady increase.
“We’re on the back end of the curve compared to the cities and the East Coast and West Coast,” he said. “They’ve had it a while, and we’re seeing some tapering off. It is increasing here. It’s not just flooding through the door. It’s gradually and steadily going up, and it is increasing in Southwest Kansas.”
Seward County Sheriff Gene Ward said about one-fourth of the inmates in the county’s jail at this time are there because of drug-related charges. He added in his office, a task force has been formed with the sole purpose of stopping the drug flow through and in the community.
“I have an interdiction team that looks for drugs and human trafficking,” he said. “We have local officers in the police department and the sheriff’s office that do patrol. That’s one of the things we look for whenever we stop a car or talked to anybody.”
Hasenbank said the local court system has gotten much more aggressive on fentanyl cases in recent years.
“We’re much less willing to work with the defense attorney or the defendant in any outcome with prison in fentanyl cases,” he said. “We’re not really getting any help from the feds. We’re not getting any help from the state. There’s no local allocation extra for fentanyl issues. Law enforcement and the courts are having to pick up the slack and let other things slide to focus on this whenever it comes up.”
Pinkston said local authorities are working to get the word out when it comes to fentanyl abuse.
“We’ve done our presentations on fentanyl throughout the last year,” he said. “It’s about education, disseminating information and hopefully getting people to understand the magnitude of this problem. It is huge.”
Southwest Medical Center Pharmacist Pam Hicks said she sees the evidence of increased fentanyl use simply from what she sees taking place in the hospital’s emergency room.
“Most of the other drugs that are coming in are tainted with it,” she said.
Hicks said fentanyl is potent, so potent in fact, it is 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin or morphine.
“It takes a very small amount to cause an overdose,” she said.
Hicks said while some fentanyl incidentally contaminates other drugs, still more is done intentionally.
“If they have a little bit of heroin, a little bit of morphine and you put a little bit of fentanyl with it, you get an enhanced effect, and fentanyl is cheaper than the naturally occurring opioids,” she said. “We see it incidentally at the hospital with people coming in or hear of deaths in the community.”
As a pharmacist, Hicks uses legal fentanyl, but the objective of herself and others is to help decrease the use of illegal fentanyl.
“Mostly, what pharmacists are as a touch point right now is with the narcan distribution,” she said. “The laws have changed on narcan to make it more readily available.”
While fentanyl is difficult to detect, Hicks said test strips are available, and grants are likewise available for communities to get and supply them.
“Wichita has done that,” she said. “What this does is if you are using illegal drugs, it gives you the ability to test to see if there is fentanyl in there.”
Hicks said many health officials warn about what is called the chocolate chip cookie effect.
“Every bite of a chocolate chip cookie doesn’t give you a chip, and it’s the same with the fentanyl test strips,” she said. “You may get a sample that doesn’t have any fentanyl in it, where the rest of your supply may have fentanyl in it. There are programs and grants communities can participate in to help with the distribution of this to try to keep some of these overdoses and deaths down.”
Those needing help recovering from fentanyl use can use the 988 Lifeline, a national network of local crisis centers that provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the United States.
Hicks said 988 was set up as a suicide prevention line.
“It’s a national number just like 911,” she said. “They do address other mental health issues. If you are struggling with addiction or another mental health issue, if you call 988, they will help you get to the resources you need. It’s totally anonymous.”
