[T]he deaths of two brothers in Burlington last week are expected to become the latest fatalities in a record-breaking string of drug overdoses in Burlington, police say. Thirty cases of drug overdoses, not all fatal, were reported to the Burlington Police Department through June 12.
That was six days before the deaths of brothers Sean and Dennis Thibault from what police suspect was a double drug overdose. The cause of death has not been officially determined, police said Wednesday.
Those numbers, accumulated over the first six months of 2015, are just shy of the 37 overdoses reported over the course of all of 2014, and the 34 reported in 2013.
This upward trend is even more obvious in a chart displaying heroin overdoses exclusively. There were 10 reported heroin overdoses in 2013, 17 in 2014 and 15 during the first half of this year alone, according to the report. In other words, more people in Burlington overdosed on heroin within the first six months of this year than in all of 2013.
Investigators believe fentanyl, a potent synthetic opiate, may be at least partially responsible for the spike in overdoses in Burlington, according to the report. It has not been determined whether fentanyl contributed to the Thibaults’ deaths.
When prescribed by a doctor, fentanyl is a powerful anaesthetic, easing the pain associated with serious injuries or cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). When abused, it can be lethal.
“In October 2002, the Russian military reportedly used ‘a fentanyl derivative’ against terrorists holding hostages in a Moscow theater; 127 of the hostages died,” the CDC website said.
Despite the dangers and the deaths, in recent years fentanyl has become more widely seen in Vermont. The Vermont Department of Health reported 17 fentanyl-related deaths in 2014, compared to 11 the previous year and none the year before that.
“Someone who is an opiate addict is taking whatever they can get. Whatever they can get at the moment is likely what they’ll take,” said Barbara Cimaglio, deputy commissioner of the Department of Health. “One day you might buy heroin that’s 50 percent pure and the next day you might take 90 percent pure – so you don’t know what you’re getting.”
That’s a problem, because getting the correct dosage may mean the difference between life and death. Fentanyl is “hundreds of times more potent than heroin,” according to CDC estimates. An opiate user who is accustomed to a certain dosage of pure heroin might overdose on the same dosage of heroin mixed with fentanyl.
Vermont’s heroin problem may be symptomatic of a national rise in heroin use. Nationally, overdose deaths involving opiate analgesics have leveled off – while a corresponding surge in fatal heroin overdoses has nearly tripled between 2010 and 2013, according to a survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This trend is consistent with the numbers reported by the Vermont Department of Health.
Cimaglio cautioned against concluding too much from the BPD’s data on Burlington drug overdoses. She said that the the relatively small sample size of the population of Burlington drug users means that extrapolations made from that data set may be unreliable.
“Since we have small numbers, sometimes it is as simple as a group of people who all used something more potent. We really cannot draw any conclusions until we see the trends over time. There can be much fluctuation from month to month,” Cimaglio said in an email.
No matter the cause or the scope, Cimaglio said that progressive treatment programs like the S.295 court-diversion bill are the solutions to the worsening heroin problem.
“If you’re addicted to opiates, whatever you’re doing, you need treatment to change your life,” she said.”