FENTANYL: A DEADLY ADDICTION

Abuse In Southwest Virginia Is Growing

News of growing abuse of the prescription painkiller fentanyl brings
another deadly battle to the region's war on drugs. In 2005, fentanyl
was the fourth leading cause of overdose deaths in Southwest
Virginia, while only three to four years earlier "it wasn't even a
blip on the screen," Tazewell County Commonwealth Attorney Dennis Lee said.

The first distribution case in Tazewell County for fentanyl came in
2002. Since then, there has been no indication of the drug's decline.
In recent months, two more individuals in Tazewell County have been
indicted for possession and distribution of the painkiller.

The use of the drug has been on the increase since intense media
attention brought the Oxycontin plague into the spotlight. Lee
believes fentanyl is being used by hard-core addicts who have moved
on to fentanyl from Oxycontin because it may be easier to obtain.

But, when abused, it appears to be even deadlier than it's predecessor.

Fentanyl is 80 times more powerful than morphine. And, unlike
morphine and heroin which are dosed in milligrams, fentanyl is
prescribed in micrograms -- 1/100th of a milligram.

Even more alarming than the knowledge of the drug's use is how many
addicts are abusing the method by which it may be prescribed.

Fentanyl is prescribed in a Duragesic patch -- a skin patch that
releases the drug by a time-release method. "People in the drug
community will poke holes in it and squeeze out the gel in the patch
and then shoot it up or cut it open into 'chicklets,' square pieces,
and chew those up or put those under their tongues," Lee said.

Medical examiners have also reported overdose cases in which victims
were discovered with numerous fentanyl patches on their bodies.

In recent weeks, the painkiller has made national headlines with the
news of more than 100 deaths in eight states from heroin users who
used a deadly mix of fentanyl and heroin.

Like so many drugs, fentanyl can be of great medicinal value for
patients who have been prescribed the drug by their doctors and use
it appropriately.

Yet those who abuse it may find the consequences are lethal.

"It is very easy to overdose on this drug," Lee said, relating how a
toxicologist once told him, "if you have a person who abuses fentanyl
on a regular basis, you probably have a person not long for the world."

Sad, but true.

Lee does not believe fentanyl is, of yet, being used experimentally
by teens -- this is one trend we hope continues.

And we commend those in the justice system who are working to arrest
and prosecute those charged with distributing the potent painkiller.

This battle in the drug war is truly a matter of life and death.