Carfentanil poses risk to Maryland's first responders (ABC 2 News)

Wednesday May 10th, 2017

BALTIMORE, Md. - A synthetic opiate is responsible for four recent deaths in Maryland. Heroin and fentanyl killed hundreds in the last year but carfentanil is stronger than both and threatens the lives of its users as well as the people who come to their aid.

In the war on heroin, medics are on the front lines. They receive a daily barrage of calls for drug overdoses.

“I bet at this station they get about 10 a day for OD's,” said Rick Hoffman, president of IAFF Local 734 Baltimore firefighters.

Hoffman represents the first responders in the City with the most heroin-related deaths in the state. Three-hundred forty two people lost their lives in the first nine months of 2016.

...

“We know that fentanyl is being trafficked from other countries and being mixed in with heroin and other drugs without the person using the drugs knowing it, so it's possible that carfentanil can also follow a similar pattern and cause many more deaths,” said Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen.

Watch the entire story.

Related Stories

Lead poisoning cases fell 19 percent in Baltimore last year, even as more children tested for exposure (Baltimore Sun)

The number of Baltimore children with lead poisoning fell 19 percent in 2017, even as more children were tested for exposure to the powerful neurotoxin.

Statewide, the number of Maryland children found to have elevated levels of lead in their blood held steady even as the number of children tested increased by 10 percent, according to a Maryland Department of the Environment report released Tuesday.

Read the entire story.

Azar Unveils Plan to Help Pregnant Patients Quit Opioids (MedPage Today)

States will get help from the federal government integrating services for pregnant and postpartum Medicaid patients with opioid use disorder under a pilot program announced Tuesday by Health and Hu

Trump declared an emergency over opioids. A new report finds it led to very little. (Vox)

To much fanfare last year, President Donald Trump ordered his administration to declare a public health emergency over the opioid epidemic. “As Americans, we cannot allow this to continue,” Trump said at the time. “It is time to liberate our communities from this scourge of drug addiction.”

When I’ve asked experts about these approaches, it’s not that any of them are bad. It’s that they fall short. For instance, Leana Wen, the former health commissioner of Baltimore (and soon-to-be president of Planned Parenthood), said that the Support for Patients and Communities Act “is simply tinkering around the edges.”

Read the entire story.

Visit the Newsroom