South Gwinnett News

Opioid abuse has been a major concern in Georgia for more than a decade, and in recent years, fentanyl has risen to the top of the list for poisons that people are using.

Gwinnett Police Department Major Stephen Land, who is based in the South Precinct, said the powerful drug is linked to multiple crimes in the region, including overdoses and deaths. Land spoke with department narcotics investigators before responding to South Gwinnett News.

“Not only in South Gwinnett, but in the county overall,” he said. “Fentanyl has been gradually increasing in prevalence over the last few years and is now very common in narcotics-related incidents throughout the county.”

It’s highly dangerous, and has left a trail of death and devastation in its wake. Gwinnett County has a rate of 32 fentanyl-related deaths per 100,000, LiveStories reports.

“Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent,” according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “It is a prescription drug that is also made and used illegally.

“Synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, are now the most common drugs involved in drug overdose deaths in the United States,” the agency reported. “In 2017 59.8% of opioid-related deaths involved fentanyl compared to 14.3% in 2010.”

“Opioid-involved overdose deaths have been rapidly increasing in Georgia since 2010, driven largely by increased use and misuse of prescription opioids,” according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. “Beginning in 2013, illicit opioids such as heroin and fentanyl drove the sharp increase in opioid-involved overdose deaths.”

In April, the state Department of Public Health issued a warning about counterfeit pills containing fentanyl that were linked to overdoses and possibly several deaths.

Buyers were told they were purchasing Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug also popular for recreational use, or Percocet, a powerful painkiller. Instead, they were getting fentanyl, according to state epidemiologist Cherie Drenzek.

In July, Aaron Devero Lewis, 33, of Decatur was arrested by Gwinnett County sheriff’s deputies on charges related to the deaths of two people he allegedly sold heroin to that contained fentanyl. He had been indicted by a grand jury in May.

Lewis has been charged with three felony murder charges related to the deaths of Dieterick Stephen Duncker and the death of Alexandra Delia Thompson. He also was charged with being in contact with them to arrange the drug transactions. Lewis reportedly sold the deadly drugs to both in 2020. 

Land said it’s an equal-opportunity danger.

“Fentanyl poses a threat to all communities. However, it also has much to do with the type of drug sought,” he said. “Some drug users seek out fentanyl specifically, but more often it is passed off as another drug, such as Percocet, or mixed with another drug, such as heroin. Therefore, it appears within the communities that are looking for those types of drugs where they are counterfeited or mixed with it in order to make the original drug source stretch further. Since fentanyl is so much stronger, the danger to overdose is extremely high as the user is at risk of inadvertently overdosing.”

Land said the drug brought to the United States primarily through the southern border. That’s one reason critics are assailing the free flow of people — and drugs — across the border.

“Fentanyl usually enters the U.S. from Mexico via cartel drug smuggling, according to the DEA,” Land said.

Fentanyl seizures at the southern border have already more than doubled the 2020 numbers, the Washington Free Beacon reports.

The "drug seizure statistics" tool run by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agency recently disclosed that agents had already seized 9,337 pounds of fentanyl by the end of July 2021, a 94% increase from the 4,791 pounds seized in the entirety of the year 2020. In 2019 the agency seized only 2,804 pounds. 

The volume of fentanyl seized from migrants at the southern border is potent enough to kill 2 billion people. Opioid overdoses have accounted for 70% of the 841,000 drug-related deaths since 1991. 2021 is set to break the all-time record for drug overdoses in the country.

National intelligence reports confirm that cartel activity increases during migrant surges and lethal drugs are far more likely to be imported because of critics charge is the Biden administration’s disregard for border security.

West Virginia has filed a lawsuit detailing the Biden administration’s role in the influx of opioids, stating, “By its consequences burdening and distracting the U.S. Border Patrol, the termination of the MPP decreases the security of the border against fentanyl trafficking between ports of entry, leading directly to both increased numbers of smuggling attempts and increased rates of success in evading Border Patrol.”

According to the Georgia Department of Public Health, opioid overdoses have increased 36% in the state, one of the largest jumps ever recorded. Dr. Dan McCollum, an emergency medicine physician at Augusta University Medical Center, said that the drug’s power and danger have to be witnessed to be understood.

“We’re seeing a great deal of fentanyl being used,” McCollum said, as reported by the Georgia Sun. “The scary thing is that it hits so fast. It can stop your breathing so quickly.’’ 

Experts say that COVID-19 related restrictions and isolation fueled a staggering increase in drug use since the pandemic began.

The ability of Georgia residents to help defeat this scourge is a key to reducing the body count, Land said.

“The most obvious answer would be to not use drugs,” the police major said. “But beyond that, understand that what the user is buying is most likely not purely the drug they are seeking. The main danger is that any drug might be mixed with fentanyl and a user should expect it to be mixed into any illegal narcotic that comes into his or her possession. There is no way to know this until after it reacts with the user.”

He said everyone must help reduce the use and abuse of fentanyl and other illicit substances. 

“In addition, one should report any suspected drug activity to the police with as much detail as possible,” Land said.