Alarming Spike In Fentanyl-Related Overdose Deaths Leads Fort Worth Police To Issue Public Warning
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - The Fort Worth Police Department has issued a public safety warning in response to seeing a substantial increase in illicit fentanyl distribution, possession and overdoses from the drug.
The fentanyl overdose cases includes an "alarming" number of deaths. Police said that in many of the overdose cases they've investigated, the user said they didn't know there was fentanyl in their pills.
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, and up to 50 times more potent than heroin. Even tiny doses, as little as two milligrams, the size of two grains of salt, is a fatal dose for most people. Treating fentanyl overdoses often requires additional naloxone to reverse the effects of the drug. Naloxone is a medication that temporarily blocks the toxic effects of opioids, or "reverses" an opioid overdose. More doses of naloxone are sometimes needed to reverse fentanyl overdoses, compared to other opioid overdoses, due to the potency of fentanyl.
The department said the most common trend currently includes the clandestine production and distribution of small, round, blue, stamped M30 "Oxycodone clone" pills containing fentanyl. Some versions of the cloned pills may have rough edges, or a distorted stamp, but the overwhelming majority of them look as though they were pharmaceutically manufactured.
In their warning, officers said doctors aren't prescribing large quantities of legitimate 30 MG Oxycodone pills or for as long a prescription. Thus, the pills aren't easily accessible for distribution by dealers.
Common names for Oxycodone pills include: Perocet, Perocdan, Tylox, Oxyfast, Xolox, Endocet, Endoran, Roxiprin, Roxicodone and Roxicet.
Common street names for the drug include: Oxy, Percs, M30s, rounds, blue, blue rounds, 30s, blue ones, green ones, kicker, 512s and hillbilly heroin.
