Wikimedia commons

ONEONTA, N.Y. — Law enforcement officers said Monday that they exercise “extreme caution” when handling heroin and other drugs during investigations because they could contain fentanyl, the powerful painkiller blamed for killing Prince less than two months ago.

Fentanyl, the most potent opioid available for use in medical treatment, is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The fast-acting narcotic, which is prescribed as a sedative or painkiller, depresses the central nervous system and respiratory functions, and is approved for managing acute or chronic pain associated with advanced cancer.

The synthetic drug is also known on the street as Apache, China white, dance fever and Cash — and can be extremely harmful if absorbed through the skin or inhaled, police said. Precautions include wearing protective gloves.

This is not the first time fentanyl has posed such a threat to public health and safety, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Between 2005 and 2007, more than 1,000 U.S. deaths were attributed to fentanyl.

“It’s something we have to be very careful about,” said Craig DuMond, undersheriff of central New York’s Delaware County. “We’ve been training officers to exercise universal precaution, especially when they’re gathering drugs — particularly heroin — and packaging them for evidence. If they get it on their hands, they can become very sick and even overdose. That’s never happened to us, thank God.”

Six weeks after superstar musician Prince was discovered in an elevator at his Paisley Park compound, a Minnesota medical examiner issued a one-page report that said the 57-year-old performer died from taking a fatal dose of fentanyl. The drug was “self-administered,” the coroner wrote, and the April 21 death was ruled an accident.

It was not immediately clear whether Prince had a prescription for the narcotic and, if not, how he obtained it. At least one friend has said he suffered from intense knee and hip pain from years of stage performances, according to The Associated Press.

Because of its risks, fentanyl is tightly controlled by the Food and Drug Administration, but much of it is manufactured illegally, according to officials. It is commonly mixed with heroin by distributors, who promote the resulting product as highly potent.

Detective Sgt. Christopher Witzenburg of the Oneonta, New York, Police Department said transdermal medical patches containing fentanyl are in high demand among addicts, who can use or sell the fentanyl in the patch. There have been instances of people stealing patches and going through the garbage to find them, he said.

That’s why police must be “very careful,” he said. Precautions include using protective clothing and equipment, including chemical-resistant gloves and eye wear.

“It’s definitely out there. And you can get very sick from handling it improperly,” Witzenburg said. “It gets right into your skin.”

Last year, police in Otsego County reported that fentanyl was suspected in a string of area heroin overdoses and two deaths.

In March 2015, the DEA issued a nationwide alert about the dangers of fentanyl and fentanyl analogues and compounds. The federal agency has also issued warnings to law enforcement that fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin and accidentally inhaled.

More than 700 fentanyl-related overdoses were reported to the DEA in late 2013 and 2014, according to its archives. That June, DEA New York dismantled a heroin and fentanyl network and arrested the two leaders of the organization. These individuals were linked to at least three overdose deaths from heroin and fentanyl they sold.

New York’s Schoharie County Sheriff Tony Desmond said he’s heard of fentanyl being mixed with heroin but hasn’t encountered any.

“I haven’t seen anything that I could put my finger on,” Desmond said Monday. “But it’s always a possibility. What surprised me when I read about Prince is that he had taken fentanyl straight instead of mixed with heroin. By itself, it’s enormously potent.”

DuMond said he recently attended a conference where a grain of salt was split into 15 pieces to demonstrate the drug’s strength. If the salt was fentanyl, just two pieces would be enough to kill a person, he said.

“It’s a huge concern,” DuMond said. “Obviously, it’s very, very toxic and microscopic amounts of it can cause immediate death. Everyone wants to have the best batch of heroin. They think mixing it with these substances will do that. These addicts are constantly chasing that high. It’s tragic.”

Reynolds writes for the (Oneonta) Daily Star.