Southwest Illinois police work to save lives by getting synthetic drugs out of homes
While playing soccer for Civic Memorial High School in Bethalto, Brad Admire tore the labrum in his shoulder and was prescribed Vicodin to manage his pain during his recovery from surgery.
He began abusing his prescription and, when the pills ran out, turned to heroin.
“The heroin was laced with fentanyl,” said David Admire, Brad’s father.
Obviously still hurting, Admire held back tears and his voice cracked as he described his son, who died from a fentanyl overdose three years ago this Thanksgiving.
“He was just so open about everything. He believed in God and he really believed in helping others,” said Admire, who has dedicated himself to helping others battling addiction. “Brad was one of those kids who would , no matter how bad he was struggling… he was still helping somebody, especially in drug addiction, he was very compassionate.”
On Oct. 23, the Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office, along with the Madison County Coroner’s Office, and the sheriff’s department partnered with the DEA to host its Prescription Drug Takeback initiative, to help keep prescription pills and their counterfeit versions out of the hands of those who may misuse or abuse them.
The event collected over 1,400 pounds of unwanted or expired pharmaceuticals in Madison county alone, said Steve Nonn, Madison County Coroner.
Fifteen law enforcement agencies throughout Madison County maintain dropboxes to collect unused or expired drugs. They are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
They accept any over-the-counter medications, vitamins, liquids, narcotics, cough medicine, prescription medicines, hormones, painkillers, antibiotics, ointments, oils, and any other unidentifiable pills. Things like oxygen tanks, asthma inhalers, mercury thermometers, hearing aids, household waste, sharps and needles are not accepted.
Synthetic drug sales surge
But there remain criminal networks that are mass producing synthetic versions of prescription pills that are cheaper and more powerful than their legally prescribed counterparts, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Sales of these illegal drugs have jumped nearly 430% since 2019, according to the DEA, which is fueling a rise in opioid addiction and overdoses. DEA lab testing reveals that two out of every five pills with fentanyl contain a potentially lethal dose.
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is similar to morphine according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It is a schedule II prescription drug and is typically used to treat patients with severe pain or to manage pain after surgery. In its legal prescription form, fentanyl is known by such names as Actiq, Duragesic, and Sublimaze.
David Admire learned about his son’s addiction from Brad himself.
“He came to me and told me that he was in a rut and couldn’t get out of it,” he recalled. “I asked what was wrong and he said he was abusing pain pills and using heroin.”
Brad had been abusing his prescribed pain pills for about six months by the time he was introduced to heroin.
“There is a legal fentanyl that doctors actually use for legitimate pain-killing purposes, but this fentanyl that we’re seeing on the streets is made in home chemistry labs,” said Nonn. “It’s 50 to 100 times more powerful than heroin and that’s why we’re having so many people overdosing on it. A lot of people that are taking fentanyl think that they are taking heroin and they’re not.”
“Russian Roulette”
The synthetic fentanyl is sold illegally as a powder, dropped on blotter paper, put in eye droppers, and nasal sprays, or made into pills that look like other prescription opioids.
Illicitly manufactured fentanyl is highly addictive, extremely powerful, and dirt cheap making it very dangerous, said Nonn
“We’ve seen a large influx of these counterfeit pills coming all across the country and specifically cities such as St. Louis,” said Emily Murray, a public information officer for the Omaha Division of the DEA. “The counterfeit pills that are coming across we are finding that two out of every five lab-tested counterfeit pills have lethal amounts of fentanyl in them.”
Murray says it doesn’t take a very big dose of a synthetic opioid to lead to the kind of tragic outcome that still pains David Admire. A lethal dose could be as little as two milligrams, which is little more than “a few grains of salt” Murray said.
“When you don’t know what you’re getting from a counterfeit pill, it’s like playing Russian Roulette because you don’t know if that pill is going to be the two milligrams considered lethal or less,” she said.
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 7:00 AM.