Keene, n.h.
“If you’re getting high, you want the fentanyl; that’s what you want,” the 22-year-old Keene resident said, reminiscing about a bag of Trap Queens that he shot into his arm, in the same spot he shoots up every time.
Kurtis, who asked that his full name not be used, said he’s been trying to get clean on and off. He described shooting heroin as a gamble because you never know what you’re going to get. More often than not, he said, it’s cut with something, usually fentanyl.
On June 17 — a day when the Keene Fire Department responded to two heroin overdoses — the city’s police warned that a particularly deadly batch of the drug may have hit Cheshire County. Known by street names such as 10s, Trap Queens and Diesels, these so-called bad batches are heavily laced with an opioid cousin that’s met heroin’s tragic toll — and eclipsed it.
Fentanyl, a particularly dangerous synthetic painkiller, is 50 times more powerful than heroin, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And so far again this year, fentanyl has been responsible for the most overdose deaths of any other drug in the state, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
As of June 15, 90 deaths had been linked to fentanyl — either alone, with another drug or, in two cases, with heroin. That’s 10 times more than the nine deaths in New Hampshire conclusively tied to heroin (used alone or with another drug) so far this year.
Keene has tallied three confirmed opioid deaths thus far in 2016, according to Fire Chief Mark F. Howard.
He said he couldn’t be sure whether 10s caused the two non-fatal overdoses seen in a single day a couple weeks ago. It’s possible, he said, because they happened within 12 hours of each other, and on the same day the warning was released.
Meanwhile, Keene Police Chief Brian Costa said two of Keene’s three recorded overdose deaths in 2016 were caused by another bad batch, dubbed Hollywood.
Brian Houghton, a licensed alcohol and drug addiction counselor in Keene, said he has seen a significant rise in fentanyl use within the past year, and it has continuously gotten worse. He figures it’s easily available now because dealers want the most for their money while selling the least amount of product.
“You never know what you’re going to get and they don’t care,” Houghton said of drug users. “And that’s the scary part. I’ve seen people overdose and the person next to them takes the needle out of their arm and finishes it. They don’t care.”
And fentanyl’s not only lurking in heroin — it can be in prescription pills, cocaine, “bath salts” and Ecstasy, too, according to Kurtis.
Last week, the Keene Fire Department tweeted a warning from the Boston Regional Intelligence Center that fentanyl pills were being sold in Boston as oxycodone.
Hinsdale Police Chief Todd Faulkner said it concerns him that fentanyl-laced heroin is in the area, and he’s heard about it, but hasn’t seen it for himself.
Two area drug users say it isn’t hard to find.
Kurtis said he’s seen countless friends, girlfriends and strangers “fall out and come back” in the throes of an overdose, or not come back at all. He, too, “died once,” he says, but his friend’s mom brought him back.
He wasn’t happy about it.
“Most shooters want to die; they have a death wish,” he said. “Death is a gift for people like us.”
His friend, 25, who asked to stay anonymous, said he’d been clean from heroin for nearly three weeks, since he lost his girlfriend to the drug. He wears the first necklace he bought for her around his neck, the necklace she was wearing when she died.
“I don’t want to see it,” he said of heroin. “Everything I do reminds me of her.”
Although he and Kurtis don’t shy away from the fentanyl bags, he suggests not doing it if you don’t want to die.
“Don’t do two bags (of fentanyl-heroin) if you don’t want a death wish,” he said.
They both identified two specific dangers in shooting up: the kind of heroin, and the user’s tolerance, which can depend on the strength of the drug and the different effects it can have on users.
“I did four times the amount than her and she died,” Kurtis’ friend said about the $10 bag of dope he and his girlfriend shot up together. It wasn’t laced with fentanyl.
Kurtis had been clean for two days because of a urine test he had to pass. If he fails, he said, he could go to jail.
He didn’t answer when asked if he will use again after his test. He shrugged his shoulders and smiled.