Hamilton County’s Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco said Tuesday tests have confirmed carfentanil in the bodies of eight recent overdose casualties, and more cases are suspected.
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Prosecutor Joe Deters and other county officials Wednesday asked a judge to grant immunity for people who turn the drug in to police.
Hamilton County Heroin Task Force Director Tom Synan Jr. said it was time for Governor John Kasich to declare a public health emergency to deal with the epidemic.
Dr. Lakshmi Kode Sammarco, the Hamilton County coroner, called everyone from veterinarians to zoos to federal law enforcement to try to find a sample of the odd drug that began being used as filler in heroin.
Law enforcement and government officials plan to appear before a judge for a hearing about the recent surge of drug overdoses in the Cincinnati area.
“It’s the family members, the people who are about the addict, who can really intervene and not be anxious about prosecution”, says Deters.
She said Cincinnati was being used as a “test tube” by dealers.
It’s believed to be related to the drug being mixed with the powerful animal sedative carfentanil.
The sheriff’s office says the amount seized August 26 was relatively small but was significant because of the danger posed by carfentanil’s strength.
Sammarco said that the area has been so devastated by overdoses, their toxicology lab is 290 cases behind. Behind her is Hamiliton County Sheriff Jim Neil.
Communities in OH neighbors West Virginia, Kentucky and in also saw overdose spikes in recent weeks.
Cincinnati firefighters said they sometimes had to use multiple doses – as many as six – of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone to save users during the spike.
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After it is imported from China into Mexico, the DEA believes drug traffickers are then mixing it with various drugs such as heroin and fentanyl-another powerful synthetic opioid-before moving it across the border into the United States. Authorities say carfentanil also poses danger to police, emergency personnel and drug dogs having contact with it.
