Gillibrand ready to combat fentanyl ODs

Fend off Fentanyl Act has bipartisan support

By BEN FIEBERT bfiebert@liherald.com

There were 270 reported deaths from overdoses in Nassau County in 2021. Of those, nearly three-quarters of them involved fentanyl, an opioid analgesic said to be 100 times stronger than morphine.

And that must come to an end, according to U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. And for her, it all starts in the halls of Capitol Hill through a bill that’s already earned the support of not only the Nassau County Police Department Center, but lawmakers and leaders on both sides of the political aisle.

Gillibrand’s Fend Off Fentanyl Act was introduced in Nassau County last week by Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder, County Executive Bruce Blakeman, District Attorney Anne Donnelly, Long Island advocate Carole Trottere, and Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence executive director Steve Chassman.

“No community has been left untouched by the deadly impacts of silent killers like fentanyl, including Long Island,” Gillibrand said. “Just last year, the DEA seized enough deadly doses of fentanyl in New York for more than three times the state’s population.”

The bill targets both cartels as well as people involved in producing and trafficking drugs into the United States, the senator said. The legislation will “better empower” the government to sanction drug traffickers and combat money laundering schemes that make this trade profitable.

“We have lost far too many lives to fentanyl overdoses,” Gillibrand said. “And I am committed to work- ing with my colleagues in congress to keep our communities safe from deadly synthetic opioids.”

Gillibrand’s bill is intended to provide more resources to law enforcement and police officers on Long Island. This will then help them “trace these transnational criminals,” find the supply chain of these drugs, and then shut down these drugs deals on a local level. Gillibrand said fentanyl is “making the strengths of these drugs so much stronger than ever imagined,” which is why she is working on finding their source.

Trottere has fought against fentanyl since her son was fatally poisoned in 2018 when he was just 30 years old. He was a licensed welder and had a great job before dying, she said. And when his life ended, Trottere’s “nightmare began.”

“Unfortunately, my story is far from unique,” she said. “Disturbingly, fentanyl and opioids have quickly become the leading cause of death among adults 18 to 45. Last year on Long Island, there were over 500 deaths from fentanyl and opioids. That means over a thousand parents became members of the club that nobody wants to join.”

These young people who died too early could have contributed a lot to the world, Trottere said, but we’ll never know what that would have been. She is certain about one thing, however: the feeling of grief. The pain that follows the death of a child is “unimaginable.”

“To the young people out there, I understand that death is not on your mind,” Trottere said. “It’s probably graduating, which is what it should be. But when you take any street drug or accept a pill from a friend at a party, or buy drugs from someone you don’t know, it could be the last thing you do.”

Fentanyl is getting mixed with everything, Ryder said. “Cocaine, crack, heroin, and even some marijuana in some situations.”

Some may not even know it, Ryder said. Adderall — used to help with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — is abused by students in schools to help them focus. But it could very well be laced with fentanyl, intended to get them addicted, and then prompting them to buy more.

This is the “business model” that Ryder has been seeing kill people across Long Island.

“It is sickening how fentanyl traffickers continue to profit by peddling deadly poison to our communities and our children,” Nassau County legislator Delia DeRiggi-Whitton said, in a statement. “Sen. Gillibrand’s Fend Off Fentanyl Act will strengthen ongoing efforts to keep this deadly, highly addictive drug out of our nation, and empower law enforcement to seize the ill-begotten gains being made at the expense of sick and suffering addicts.”