Deadly Fentanyl-Laced Pills Emerge in Central Fla., Agents Say

April 06--For the first time in Central Florida, drug agents are seeing counterfeit pain and anxiety medications infused with a synthetic opioid that is linked to scores of fatal overdoses across the country and at least one in Central Florida.

Some call the fentanyl-laced drug the "super pill." But the law-enforcement world says the term "death pill" is more accurate because even a small dose of the powder can shut down your respiratory system.

The region's battle against fentanyl, especially when it's found in heroin, dates back years. But the emergence of the substance in a pill is new, expanding potential victims to include recreational users or experimenting teenagers -- not just intravenous drug abusers, according the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

"It is here, it is deadly and it will continue to grow in our community ..." FDLE Orlando Special Agent in Charge Danny Banks said at a Tuesday news conference. "Mark my words, this 'death pill' will be in the hands of our high school-age students in Central Florida. It is bad, bad stuff that is killing people, and it is here right now."

In many cases, Banks said, neither sellers nor buyers know the black-market Percocet or Xanax or Oxycodone is paired with an opioid up to 100 times stronger than morphine.

Over two days, FDLE lab results have confirmed fentanyl-laced pills seized in Osceola and Brevard counties, Banks said, and it has been linked to at least one fatality in the area. Banks would not comment further on the active investigations or say how many pills were collected, emphasizing that his purpose was to spread the public-safety message and encourage people to throw away pills they got without a prescription.

Banks said he had no doubt the drug would spread to Orange County soon, if it hasn't already.

People can turn in street pills, at no punishment, to drop boxes at a number of local law enforcement offices. Locations are listed on the Florida Department of Environmental Protection website.

FDLE Orlando's announcement comes about two weeks after the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office attributed nine recent deaths to a batch of anxiety medication Xanax laced with fentanyl.

A similar spike connected to fentanyl-laced pills was confirmed this month in San Francisco.

When prescribed by a doctor, fentanyl offers pain relief to patients suffering from debilitating diseases or recovering from surgery. It is distributed intravenously, by a patch or a lozenge.

The medicine works by stimulating the opioid receptors in the brain and triggering euphoric feelings, said Dr. Josef Thundiyil, an emergency medicine physician and medical toxicologist at Orlando Regional Medical Center.

A high dose will shut down the brain's respiratory signals and ultimately halt breathing, he said.

"When you are buying it off the street, it's as dangerous as buying any other street drug," Thundiyil said. "We often don't know what the dose is, and we don't know what it's mixed with, so there's no telling what effects it might have on any person."

Fentanyl amplifies the effects of any drugs mixed with it, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Law enforcement officers are more familiar encountering fentanyl in a powder form mixed with heroin.

That has plagued communities from Philadelphia to Detroit since the early 2000s. And it emerged in Central Florida in August when 11 people overdosed on fentanyl-laced heroin at the troubled Blossom Park Condominiums in Orange County.

Over the past several years, fentanyl-related deaths have soared in Orange and Osceola counties, according to data provided by the region's medical examiner's office.

The number of accidental fentanyl-related deaths has surged from 18 in 2013 to 70 in 2015, according to the Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner's Office.

The 2015 numbers aren't finalized yet. In the first three months of this year, there have been five cases of a fentanyl-related fatal overdose.

Interim medical examiner Joshua Stephany is awaiting test results to see if any of the deaths were from the pill form.

FDLE and the Drug Enforcement Administration are working together to locate the illicit supply source.

"If you are buying it from people on the black market or the street, I cannot assure you that it will not be laced with a deadly concoction ... it will kill you," Banks said.

echerney@tribune.com or 407-420-5735

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