Most fentanyl comes to Ashtabula County through mail

The fentanyl flooding Ashtabula County isn't coming from the medical world, but instead through mail to drug traffickers looking to build a reputation as having "the best dope," according to a drug expert.

Trumbull-Ashtabula Group drug task force Assistant Commander Greg Leonhard said four or five years ago when officers first started seeing fentanyl — a pharmaceutical opioid 100 times stronger than morphine typically used for pain relief in cancer patients — it might have been coming from people stealing it from nursing homes. 

"That has really changed. Most of what we're seeing is coming through the mail," he said.

People are able to go online and order it from countries like India, Afghanistan and China, where they don't have the same level of controls. 

Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and Rob Portman, a Republican, have pushed bipartisan bills to fund fentanyl screening equipment for border patrol — which President Trump signed in January — as well as for the postal service. 

“Ohioans are dying from overdoses at the second highest rate in the country. Families are being torn apart. Children are losing parents. Parents are losing sons and daughters. And we know fentanyl is one of the main culprits,” Brown said in January.

At the time Portman said he was shocked to learn how easy it was to buy fentanyl online.

"These synthetic drugs have invaded communities across Ohio and across the country. Unbelievably, this deadly poison is primarily shipped into America from China through our United States Postal Service," he said, adding, "Online sellers were quick to respond, unafraid of being caught, and ready to make a deal. ... It is inexcusable that these drugs are as easy to ship as a postcard and that the traffickers preferred shipping method for these deadly poisons is a federal agency, the United States Postal Service. Our Post Office has become a conduit for these deadly drugs."

Leonhard said the state also has been slow to respond to the fentanyl crisis. He said the punishments need to mirror heroin, but right now heroin possession is a third-degree felony while fentanyl is a fifth-degree felony, even though "fentanyl is far more powerful than heroin."

He blasted the state, saying he believes one of the biggest reasons fentanyl hasn't been classified as a higher-degree felony is because of issues with the state closing prisons and not being able to take on those convicted of higher-level felony drug charges. Instead, the state "dumped" more responsibilities on local governments without the resources or jail space to deal with it.

"Ohio has been very slow to react to the fentanyl issue when it comes to the punishment. ... I think really the only reason there has been a delay is if you enhance punishments on fentanyl you will then have to deal with it on the other end where you need to put these people in jail," he said. 

Mixed and straight

Fentanyl was first introduced in the drug community as something mixed with heroin because it increased the high so much. 

Now, some dealers are selling straight fentanyl and billing it to users as heroin. Because it is as much as 50 times more powerful, fentanyl is driving many of the overdoses because users are taking it the same way they would heroin.

"It's not necessarily cut with other drugs anymore," he said. "There were times we (did a controlled buy) of 15 grams of heroin and when we got the labs back it was 15 grams of fentanyl."

Though fentanyl is more expensive for dealers to obtain than heroin, it is worth the additional cost to dealers because of the word on the street.

"If you get a reputation on the street that you have good dope, you get more customers coming to you," Leonhard said. "A heroin addict is always chasing that high and will go to whoever has the best high. ... People on every street corner are selling heroin, so you have to do something to make your business more attractive."

In fact, some dealers have begun mixing coloring additives to their fentanyl concoctions making it pink or purple. 

"Then they can say 'that pink stuff was great;' they use it as a selling point. They're marketing their product," he said.

Dealers also market their product by how many people die or overdose. Leonhard said for most heroin addicts pure heroin only alleviates the sickness, but addicts are "still chasing that high when you first started using heroin." 

While some heroin dealers are now selling pure fentanyl, fentanyl is also beginning to get mixed in with other drugs — including marijuana. The pot dealers do it for the same reason — to market their product as being "good dope" — but it can ultimately make marijuana, a product not know for overdoses, deadly.

Leonhard said officials have also begun to see fentanyl mixed with meth as well as cocaine.  

"It's now being mixed in with everything. People are using it and getting different effects and using it as selling points," he said. 

Fentanyl and doctors

As far as the medical community goes, Leonhard said he has little contact with those in the medical field now, particularly since Ohio changed its monitoring rules and cracked down on "doctor shopping," which has cut down on abusers getting pills from legitimate medical professionals.

He said the focus now for doctors has to be not creating new addicts, and that starts with doctors trying less addictive pain medication prescriptions first, such as Tylenol or Advil.

"The horse is out of the barn. That should have been addressed 10 years ago. ... The door is open, we're a little too late. We have to prevent new people becoming addicted," he said.