Fentanyl Crisis In Illinois: Overdose Deaths Increase Statewide

ILLINOIS — Amid a more than 2,700 percent increase in deaths from synthetic opioid overdoses in Illinois over less than a decade, lawmakers here and elsewhere in the country are tackling the fentanyl crisis that has contributed to several recent mass overdose incidents in other states.

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, opioid overdoses increased 33 percent between 2019 and 2020, with 2,944 opioid overdose deaths in 2020. That's more than twice the number of fatal motor vehicle accidents in Illinois and more than twice the number of homicides. Fentanyl played a role in most of those deaths.

Last month, state Sen. Laura Ellman (D-Naperville) introduced a bill that would impose harsher penalties for people who distribute fentanyl, but would give people seeking treatment for an overdose immunity from being prosecuted for possessing small amounts of the drug. The move is aimed at saving lives and encouraging people to seek help for fentanyl overdoses without fear of arrest.

"There will be safeguards for those who are seeking help, for those who are using, or whose friends, colleagues, families have used it and are facing an overdose crisis," Ellman said at a news conference.

Mass overdoses in other states

Illegal drugs cut with fentanyl to make them go further on the street are behind a deadly wave of overdoses that already have killed more than two dozen people in several U.S. cities this year, and could make it to Illinois streets, the nation’s top drug official told police across the country last week.

Drug Enforcement Administration head Anne Milgram said in the letter to local, state and federal law enforcement officials that, in recent months, 29 people have died in 58 "mass-overdose events" in seven U.S. cities.

A mass-overdose event is one in which three or more people take a lethal dose in proximity of time and place. In recent months, such events have been reported in Wilton Manors, Florida; Austin, Texas; Cortez, Colorado; Commerce City, Colorado; Omaha, Nebraska; St. Louis, Missouri; and Washington, D.C.

Natural and synthetic opioids are a scourge everywhere, though illegally manufactured fentanyl makes them more dangerous, “killing Americans at an unprecedented rate,” Milgram said in a news release.

Fentanyl deaths skyrocket

Two-thirds of the 105,750 people who died of drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending in October 2021 were using synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, according to provisional data published last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In fact, the DEA said, fentanyl killed more Americans than guns and traffic crashes combined.

In Illinois, the CDC said 3,584 drug overdose deaths were reported in Illinois in October 2021, compared with 3,538 in October 2020. That's an increase of 1.3 percent, but U.S. health officials noted that statewide drug deaths in Illinois are underreported due to incomplete data.

Locally, Illinois officials have warned of a spike in fentanyl-related deaths. Last month, DuPage County Coroner Richard Jorgenson said fentanyl was involved in 75 fatal overdoses in 2021, calling it a "major drug" when it comes to overdose fatalities.

In nearby Will County, over of 150 overdose deaths in 2021, fentanyl was a factor in 111 deaths. So far this year, there have been 26 overdose deaths in Will County, with fentanyl playing a role in 21 deaths.

Since 2013, synthetic opioid overdose deaths have increased 2,736 percent in Illinois.

Cocaine, pills laced with fentanyl

Pharmaceutical fentanyl is about 100 times more potent than most opioids. It has a legitimate purpose, but drug cartels also mix it up in clandestine labs and smuggle it into the United States through Mexico for the black market, according to the DEA. On the streets, cocaine is laced with fentanyl to make it more powerful or to stretch the base product, or it’s pressed into pills as passed off as legitimate prescription pills such as Percocet, Vicodin or OxyContin.

Because there is no official oversight or quality control, the counterfeit pills sometimes contain lethal doses of fentanyl.

In February, the U.S. Attorney's Office said a 51-year-old Illinois man was arrested after the DEA seized fentanyl and a "pill press" from his suburban home.

"Drug traffickers are driving addiction, and increasing their profits, by mixing fentanyl with other illicit drugs," Milgram said. "Tragically, many overdose victims have no idea they are ingesting deadly fentanyl, until it's too late."

Illegally produced fentanyl has been found in all 50 states. Opioid deaths increased more than 28 percent in the 12-month period ending in April 2021, according to the most recent report on opioid morbidity in the United States.

The DEA said it is ready to step in and assist law enforcement officials in Illinois in tracing mass-overdose events back to local drug dealers and the international cartels behind the surging domestic supply of fentanyl, officials said.

So far this year, the DEA has seized almost 2,000 pounds of fentanyl and 1 million fake pills. Last year, the agency seized more than 15,000 pounds of fentanyl, four times as much as was confiscated in 2017.

That’s enough to kill every American, the agency said.