THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA A-7
THURSDAY-FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20-21, 2016
Authoritative Numbers Lacking On Extent Of County Heroin Epidemic DEATHS/From A1 opioid overdoses across the county since January, with two in September. “We’ve seen a real increase in deaths,” said Coroner James Dow of Cooperstown. He reported four heroin deaths in his area this year. Mike Fox, the coroner at Cherry Valley, reported three. Gordon Terry, the coroner at Edmeston, didn’t return a call. Frustratingly, Cooperstown Police Chief Mike Covert said, that many suspicious deaths aren’t always investigated, meaning the real number could be much higher. “If you’re taken by ambulance to the hospital and you die there, the coroner doesn’t attend the death,” he said. “There may not even be an autopsy.” Recently, Covert said, he saw a report that listed the cause of death as “cardiomyopathy.” “That’s when your heart stops. That’s what we all die of,” he said.
“The question is, what made a young person’s heart stop? But people don’t want to admit that this is a problem, so it’s not being accurately reported.” As it stands now, there is no authoritative Coroner tally of in-county Knapp heroin deaths. At a talk he gave in Cooperstown Sunday, Oct. 16, Covert reported three heroin deaths the weekend of Oct. 8. Following up, however, he was unable to confirm those deaths. Dow, Knapp and Covert attribute the recent spike to heroin laced with fentanyl, or even stronger completely synthetic opioids. In September, Knapp got a call
from Dr. Robin Eastman-Abaya, the pathologist at Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton. “You need to contact law enforcement,” she told him. She’d done two toxicology reports that day, one on a man from Worcester and another in a Broome County case. Both came back with positives for a deadly mix of fentanyl and furanylfentanyl, a designer drug, a synthetic version of the narcotic, most likely sold on the streets masquerading as pure heroin. “It was the first time either of us had seen that,” he said. “This is not just the poppy from Afghanistan. Dealers are cutting heroin with fentanyl, morphine, Oxycodone. It’s stronger than what the user is used to, and they overdose.” Identifying heroin and opioid overdoses at the scene isn’t always easy, said Knapp. “Each person who passes away of an overdose does something differ-
ent,” he said. “Some slump in their chair and their airway gets closed off. Others aspirate their vomit, some go into cardiac arrest. Then it’s up to the police investigation and the autopsy to determine if the death was drug related.” Toxicology reports are sent to a lab in Pennsylvania, where they can take as long as 10 weeks to come back with the results determining whether it was an overdose. “We have to send them out of state,” he said. “If we sent them to a lab in New York, they’re so backed up that we’re looking at 16-20 weeks for results.” And even the autopsies come back differently. “It’s usually a combination of drugs,” he said. “One had six pages listing all the drugs he had in his system – hydrocodon, oxymorphone, fentanyl, furanyl-fentanyl… there were 44 products in that dose. And every single dose is different.” “This isn’t about one bad batch,”
said Covert. “It’s people doing bad drugs.” And overdoses requiring medical transport have seen a sharp uptick since the beginning of the month, with eight reported so far across the county. Over the past two weekends, state troopers in Richfield Springs responded to two separate overdoses, reviving the victims with Narcan and saving their lives. “We’ve responded to three overdoses this month,” said Sheriff Richard J. Devlin Jr. “The drug problem is spiraling out of control.” “We responded to an overdose on Tuesday” – one of 30 handled by the Oneonta Fire Department this year, according to Assistant Chief said Jim Maloney. “This year we’ve had 131 overdose cases called into 911,” said county 911 Director Rob O’Brien. “Calls involving heroin are on the rise and concerning.”
Tales From Front Lines Of County Heroin War
Jim Kevlin/The Freeman’s Journal & HOMETOWN ONEONTA
Rena Lull, left, and Bill Waller, both of Cooperstown, had front-row seats in an almost full house listening to Chief Mike Covert’s presentation Sunday, Oct. 16, at Cooperstown Village Hall. the recent local cases, the perCOVERT/From A1 petrator cut the canvas top on a overdosing on the deadly drug. Jeep and stole 200 CDs. Officers were able to shake He knew heroin had arhim awake, but when the tried rived in force in Cooperstown to apply Narcan, an overdosea couple of years ago when 43 halting medication, he stopped cars were broken into in one them. weekend, and one car stolen. “It’ll ruin my high,” he told The chief urged attendees to Covert. Officers took the young man lock their cars and their homes, and suggested installing moto Bassett’s emergency room, tion-sensitive lights. Also, if and an hour later he was back your car is broken into, report on the job at a local establishit. “If we don’t know, we can’t ment. respond,” he said. The 30 audience members At one point, 90 percent of listening to the chief speak Oct. 16, at the Friends of the Village local heroin addicts had gotten hooked through pain-killers Library’s Sunday Afternoon prescribed by physicians, and Programs, gasped, as they had he urged people to take unused several times in the previous pills to the drop-box at the Fair hour. Street entrance to the Village Covert, who has become Police Station, so they can be immersed in the heroin scene destroyed. (There is a similar since enrolling the department drop-box at the Oneonta Police last November in PAARI – the Department.) Police Assisted Addiction & He divided the drug trade Recovery Initiative – had gripinto three levels. The big ping stories to tell, but overall his message was a positive one. dealers, who don’t use, and are strictly in the trade for the profHe was prompted to get involved, he said, after the son of its. Arrest one in a local motel, “day after, someone else is in a classmate from Cooperstown the same motel, same room, High School and another same cell phone … This is a friend’s daughter in Kingston non-stop source coming from died of overdoses. the city.” “We have drugs in the vilSecond, dealer-users, who lage,” he he told the gathering. “We have every kind of drug in sell smaller amounts to feed their own habits. Caught, they the village you may imagine. are diverted into county Judge We’re not immune to that.” Brian Burns’ Drug Treatment Under PAARI, addicts can Court. “You need to test clean, surrender their “kits” to police or you’re locked up, sent to without fear of arrest, and – if rehab, and stay there until your they have insurance – can be spirited away to a detox and re- probation’s up.” Third is the habilitation facility – usually in addicts who steal to feed their habits. Florida or California; there are The information was trouinsufficient rooms in New York bling, but it was the stories that State – within 24 hours. were most wrenching. To date, 87 people, mostly In September 2015, village from the county, but some police were ready to raid an from as far away as Buffalo apartment on Pioneer Street and Elmira, often relatives of where drug activity had been local people, have participated. reported. The afternoon before, A hurdle is the state’s Fidelis officers were summoned by a Medicaid, he said: It provides 911 call. just four days for detox, when Covert and his officers detox requires 10 days; and 14 arrived to find a young man, days for rehab, when rehab can unconscious, standing upright take a year. in the shower under a stream Given recent car breakof cold water. “We pulled him ins on Walnut Street and out of the shower and gave him Susquehanna Avenue, the chief Narcan,” said Covert. “Five gave the gathering a primer on the economics of addiction: An minutes later, he sat up. He had the clearest blue eyes I’ve ever addict may start by snorting seen.” 2-3 “baggies” a day of heroin, Suddenly he exclaimed, “Oh $25 each. But soon, they are my god, I’m going to be late injecting themselves with up to for work!” 25 baggies a day – $625 a day, Instead, the officers took him or $4,375 a week. Thus, 10 addicts would need to the Bassett emergency room. An hour later, Covert caught up $43,375 a week to feed their habits. They steal from parents with him in Trauma Room #3. “There’s something miss– a set of silver can be pawned ing,” the chief told the young for 10 percent of its value (and man. “Where are all your melted down for resale) – from relatives and friends, then begin friends?” “They left me,” came the breaking into cars and homes, reply. the chief said. “Yes,” said Covert, “and you “Whatever they can sell, could have died.” they sell,” he said. In one of