A synthetic opioid approximately 100 times more potent than fentanyl has shown up in Sedgwick County, and public health officials don’t know where it’s coming from.
Four Sedgwick County autopsy toxicology tests in the past three months have contained carfentanil, county officials say, which can be lethal at levels as little as two milligrams.
First synthesized in 1974, carfentanil is primarily used to tranquilize large mammals, but has no legitimate medical use on humans. Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter termed the drug “fentanyl on steroids.”
In the mid-2010s, a wave of carfentanil overdoses hit the Midwest. After largely disappearing for a few years, the drug showed up in Sedgwick County in April.
Easter said carfentanil is “very dangerous” to the Wichita community. “We already have parents that have left fentanyl laying around, and very young kids have ingested it and died … so this is going to contribute to those overdose deaths, without a doubt. I mean, it already did.”
Carfentanil first appeared in the United States as a narcotic in 2016 , often arriving from China, where it was legally produced . Frequently disguised as heroin, carfentanil showed up in thousands of drug seizures from 2016 to 2018, primarily concentrated in Rust Belt states.
In March 2017, China began regulating carfentanil , and two years later, the drug had largely disappeared from the United States. In the past few months, however, it has appeared in New York , Ohio , Florida and Kansas.
Sedgwick County wasn’t hit by the initial wave of carfentanil seven years ago. Still, Easter said they’ve been “expecting to see carfentanil here” eventually.
“Our narcotics unit is working diligently to try to figure out how it’s getting here,” Easter said.
There is no broad-level data that tracks carfentanil overdose deaths, but a 2020 study from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh linked carfentanil in drug seizures to overall overdose-death spikes. For example, Ohio saw the largest increase in overdose deaths (782) and carfentanil seizures (3,540) among all states from 2016 to 2017, and had the largest decline in both deaths and carfentanil seizures in 2018.
Donald S. Burke, an author of the study, said it’s rare for carfentanil to be first noticed in autopsy reports rather than drug seizures as it takes such a small amount of carfentanil in the bloodstream to overdose.
“Our belief is … that the laboratories completely missed the carfentanil, and the only reason that it was able to be detected as an epidemic due to carfentanil was the fact that seizures were police seizures and that was easy to test,” Burke said.
This suggests that autopsy reports may undercount carfentanil. Drug identification tests, which are far better at detecting the drug, are currently backlogged at the Sedgwick County Forensic Science Center.
Burke said he doesn’t know why carfentanil is re-emerging, but that “smart money” is on the origin being a single source distributing the drug across the United States.
Easter speculated that because of drug mixing, some of those that passed away from carfentanil might not have known they were taking it. Carfentanil, like fentanyl, can appear in pill or powder form, and often resembles or is mixed in with drugs like cocaine or heroin.
“Some folks probably don’t even know that they’re taking carfentanil, which is very dangerous,” Easter said. “And then you have some folks that are looking for the next bigger, better high.”
Easter said his office is focused on public education efforts and finding the source of the drug.
“Maybe we can get to a point where the younger generation is not experimenting with this or using it, and then it will go away somewhat,” Easter said.
“But you’re talking years. It’s here to stay.”
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