'SUICIDE PACKETS'

The Deadly Fentanyl Outbreak

'It's Only A Matter Of Time Until We See It Here,' Police Worry

Every day Pam Walsh thinks about her son and how he shouldn't have died.

Jamie Walsh died in October 2004 from a drug overdose after ingesting
fentanyl, a strong pain medication, at a Port Huron party.

Following the recent news of people dying in cities across the
country, including Detroit, from heroin laced with fentanyl is
bringing the pain back for Walsh of Harrison Township.

"His death shouldn't have happened," she said. "He never would have
taken a drug like that, never, ever, if he'd known what it was."

Metro Detroit has seen more than 130 fentanyl-related deaths since
September, and the epidemic has drawn together local, state and
federal officials to combat it.Close to home

Local police haven't yet seen heroin laced with fentanyl in the Blue
Water Area, but they say it's only a matter of time before it comes here.

"Right now crack cocaine is the big drug coming up here," said Sgt.
Tom Buckley of the St. Clair County Drug Task Force. "For the most
part it's people who go down to Detroit and pick up heroin, so it's
only a matter of time until we see it here."

Police said they have been in contact with the federal Drug
Enforcement Administration and plan on following tactics the DEA
develops to combat the problem.

Jamie Walsh's death was the first fentanyl-related death seen in the
area, said Port Huron police Sgt. Scott VanSickle, who investigated the case.

He said illegal uses of fentanyl still are relatively new to the area.

"We're planning on seeing more," VanSickle said. "When we first
started looking into this, no one knew about fentanyl and the effects
of it. I found there were incidents on the east and west coasts, but
it hadn't made it here yet."Moving forward

For Pam Walsh, there was a small amount of good that came from Jamie's death.

His death was used to help persuade legislators to pass a law
allowing for a life sentence for anyone who provides someone with a
controlled substance that results in death.

Russell Govett, the St. Clair Township man charged in Jamie Walsh's
death, was sentenced to 10 to 30 years in prison. He was not charged
under the new law because it went into effect this year, after he was charged.

"That's the best thing that came out of this," Pam Walsh said about
the legislation. "My son was no saint and was ultimately responsible
for his death, but knowing this could happen to someone else and (the
person who gave the drug) can't just say it was an accident."

Police said Govett provided Walsh with fentanyl in the patch form,
and he and others chewed on it to get a high. The party had been
videotaped, and the tape highlighted Walsh's trouble breathing.

"If that hadn't existed we might have been in a situation where we
couldn't prosecute it," said Mona Armstrong, St. Clair County senior
assistant prosecutor. "It highlighted the problems with the gap in
our laws at the time for a situation like that. The people at the
party had no clue what (fentanyl) was and what it was capable of
doing. Disbursing it the way they did put the victims at great risk."

[Sidebar]

Fentanyl At A Glance

# The narcotic fentanyl, invented in the late 1950s, is widely used
in medicine for anesthesia and pain relief.

# Two common applications are as patches used for chronic pain
management and as a lollipop for flareups of pain in cancer patients.

# One form of the drug, with a potency 10,000 times that of morphine,
is used by veterinarians to immobilize very large animals

# Illicit drug labs have manufactured a dozen forms of fentanyl since
the 1970s.

# Fentanyl also makes it to the street through pharmacy theft,
fraudulent prescriptions and illicit distribution by patients and
doctors. Thieves have even peeled patches off the backs of terminal
cancer patients at nursing homes.

# Street names for fentanyl: "Drop Dead" and "Suicide Packets"