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Deadly fentanyl is big business By Vickie Aldous Updated: Sep 19, 2022 06:15 PM A A Drug dealers are targeting kids and young adults with rainbow-colored fentanyl pills and powder. [U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration photo] Drug dealers now targeting kids with rainbow colors When prosecutor Marco Boccato saw potentially deadly fentanyl being sold by drug dealers in a rainbow of colors, he thought of the slogan for colorful, sugary Trix cereal. “’Trix are for kids.’ It’s direct marketing to young people. It’s just scary that that’s what we’ve come to. They’re directly marketing these drugs that are killing people to young people,” said Boccato, assistant U.S. attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Oregon. Boccato and others on the front lines of the fentanyl addiction and overdose crisis spoke during a Focus on Fentanyl conference in Medford this month. Drug cartels in Mexico are buying cheap chemical mixtures that are precursors for fentanyl from China, processing them into fentanyl in clandestine labs, then trafficking the drugs into the U.S. to make enormous profits, experts said. Cartels started by mainly mixing fentanyl into other drugs, like heroin, or shaping fentanyl into pale blue pills that mimicked prescription opioid pain pills. The latest fad is adding bright colors to fentanyl to make pills, powder or a substance that looks like kids’ sidewalk chalk. The newest fentanyl variation is known as rainbow fentanyl or “Skittles” — a reference to the well-known fruit-flavored candy. Kids and adults don’t have to meet a drug dealer on a street corner. They can buy pills off the Internet, including through social media apps like Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. Taking a pill carries much less stigma than injecting drugs, Boccato said. “It’s a nightmare for parents, and the availability is increasing greatly for kids,” he said. Investigative journalist Ben Westhoff — author of “Fentanyl Inc.” — spoke at the conference about traveling to China to see the chemical manufacturing industry up close. He asked to visit companies on behalf of a fictitious friend interested in making big purchases of fentanyl precursors that were legal in China but illegal in Europe and the U.S. One lab was in a suburban office park, with salespeople on the first floor and workers mixing up chemicals on the second floor. Westhoff saw barrels filled with bags of fentanyl precursors — all waiting for export. A lethal dose of fentanyl is the size of 10-15 grains of salt. It can cause people to stop breathing and die. Westhoff then traveled to Wuhan, China. The city mainly is known as ground zero for the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s also a manufacturing center for the chemical industry. China makes almost all the generic drugs for the world, he said. Westhoff visited a fentanyl precursor company located in a hotel building. More than 200 people, mostly recent college graduates, worked on computers in tiny cubicles selling precursors to make the world’s deadliest drug, he said. “It blew my mind how corporate it was and how organized it was,” he said. Westhoff, who openly took photos during his tour, said the company provided rooms, meals by a company chef and karaoke nights for its workers. A sign in a hallway had Chinese writing plus a slogan in English — “Chemicals create a better life.” A few years after his book came out, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed an indictment against the company owner. China eventually banned certain fentanyl precursors, but chemists just tweak the formula and sell different mixes that remain legal, Westhoff said. “Chinese companies follow the law,” Westhoff said. “They want to make money quietly. The Chinese government doesn’t want to be known as the drug dealer to the world, but companies are generating taxes and providing jobs. Overdose deaths are half a world away.” To stop cartels from getting fentanyl precursors, China would have to ban pre-precursors, then pre-pre-precursors. But those basic ingredients have legitimate uses in medication and other products, Westhoff said. Even if the fentanyl precursor industry could be stamped out in China, manufacturing would shift to India, Russia or another country, he said. “We’re never going to stop this from coming into our country,” he said. Westhoff said pharmaceutical companies got millions of people in the U.S. addicted to prescription opioid pain pills. When the dangers became clear, the United States cracked down on prescriptions of the pills. There wasn’t enough heroin — an illegal opioid made from opium poppies that have to be grown, harvested and processed — for addicted people who turned to street drugs. “Fentanyl rushed in to fill the void,” Westhoff said. For a $35,000 investment in fentanyl ingredients and a machine to mold pills, drug trafficking organizations can make $10 million to $20 million in profits, according to Dr. Kelly Olson, associate director of clinical affairs for the national drug testing company Millennium Health. Fentanyl was invented in 1959 by a Belgian chemist looking for a drug superior to morphine. Much more powerful than morphine, fentanyl is still used for legitimate purposes under closely monitored conditions, such as surgery in a hospital. It takes effect quickly and then wears off quickly, Westhoff said. That means illicit users get a fast, powerful high, but then they come down quickly and go into withdrawal after a few hours. They constantly have to seek and use fentanyl, Westhoff said. Dr. Kerri Hecox, who specializes in treating parents struggling with addiction, said prescription medications like buprenorphine that help ease opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms don’t work well for fentanyl addiction. Instead of helping, buprenorphine triggers extreme withdrawal symptoms in fentanyl users, said Hecox, medical director for the Oasis Center of the Rogue Valley, which is located in Medford. Methadone treatment to help with cravings and withdrawal is easier for fentanyl users to tolerate, but the distribution of methadone is tightly restricted through methadone clinics. Regulations need to be eased, Hecox said. Across Jackson County and the nation, overdose deaths are skyrocketing, primarily because of fentanyl. “There’s a lot of kids who are really suffering from this. In my clinic practice alone, three young moms died this year from fentanyl-related causes. Only one of them was an overdose,” Hecox said. “We talk a lot about overdose deaths. That’s just the tip of the iceberg of what we’re seeing.” Among other health complications, people are dying from heart inflammation and sepsis, a condition in which the body’s overwhelming response to an infection can lead to tissue damage, organ failure and death. Smoking fentanyl can cause dangerous asthma symptoms, according to Hecox. Boccato, the federal prosecutor, said no matter how hard law enforcement and prosecutors work to intercept fentanyl and hold dealers accountable, they’ll never be able to cut off the flow of fentanyl. He said everyone has to join the battle against fentanyl. “We have to educate our youth and our families about the dangers of this drug,” Boccato said. People need better access to mental and physical health care, including addiction treatment. Local groups like Max’s Mission that distribute free opioid overdose antidote kits have a critical role to play in keeping people alive, Boccato said. “The only successful way we’re going to be able to handle this is working together,” he said. Reach Mail Tribune reporter Vickie Aldous at 541-776-4486 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @VickieAldous.