FENTANYL OVERDOSES SURGING

Scores Of Deaths Across The Country Have Been Blamed On Abuse Of
Medical Patches Containing Fentanyl, A Synthetic Narcotic.

ST. LOUIS - Justin Knox bit down on the bitter-tasting patch,
instantly releasing three days' worth of a drug more powerful than
morphine. He was dead before he got to the hospital.

The 22-year-old construction worker and addict was another victim in
an apparent surge in U.S. overdoses blamed on abuse of the fentanyl
patch, a prescription-only product that is intended for cancer
patients and others with chronic pain and is designed to dispense the
medicine slowly through the skin.

''I cannot tell you the amount of people I've seen and the creative
ways they abuse this drug,'' said Dr. Scott Teitelbaum, director of
the Florida Recovery Center in Gainesville. ``Fentanyl has been
abused for years. But recently there has been an increase.''

Fentanyl, a synthetic narcotic, was introduced in the 1960s, but it
was not until the early 1990s that it became available in patch form.
Last year, the first generic versions of the patch hit the market.

At least seven deaths in Indiana and four in South Carolina since
2005 have been blamed on abuse of the fentanyl patch, along with more
than 100 deaths in Florida in 2004.

Emergency-room visits by people misusing fentanyl shot up nearly
14-fold to 8,000 nationwide between 2000 and 2004, according to the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The figures do not
indicate how many of those ER visits were because of the patch.

In recent months, more than 100 deaths have been reported from
Chicago to Detroit to Philadelphia among drug addicts who overdosed
on heroin mixed with fentanyl. And federal drug agents believe
fentanyl is being made in clandestine labs in Mexico and elsewhere.

The first fentanyl patch was Duragesic, made by Johnson & Johnson.
Sales more than tripled from 2000 to 2004, according to the Pacific
Law Center in La Jolla, Calif.

Mark Wolfe, spokesman for PriCari, the J&J unit that oversees
Duragesic, said the product comes with strong ''black box'' warnings
about the dangers of abuse.