A lethal dose of fentanyl is just 2 milligrams, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. That amount of the synthetic opioid is equal to about 10-15 grains of table salt. The drug was first developed in 1959, according to the DEA, and is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as an analgesic and anesthetic. Officials with the Winneshiek County Sheriff’s Office said many local cases of opioid addiction began with legitimate prescriptions for chronic pain, but some patients seek out illegal suppliers if their medical provider is no longer willing to issue a prescription. (Image courtesy of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency)
By Zach Jensen,
Marijuana and methamphetamine are still northeast Iowa’s current drugs of choice, according to Winneshiek County Sheriff Dan Marx and Detective Deputy Chris Wuebker, but they said cocaine and heroin use in the Driftless Region is rising quickly.
“The fastest-growing drugs we’re seeing in Iowa are cocaine and heroin,” Marx said. “They’re not the most-prevalent narcotics, but their numbers are growing faster than prescription drugs, marijuana and methamphetamine.”
Wuebker said the top three drugs northeast Iowa law enforcement has dealt with in the last three months are — in order — opioids, marijuana and methamphetamine.
“For some reason, Iowa likes its meth,” Wuebker said. “And, lately, we’ve had more prescription pill cases, but our meth cases are still up there.”
The detective said another drug Winneshiek County is seeing more often is fentanyl — a potent synthetic opioid, which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency notes was developed in 1959 and is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as an analgesic and anesthetic. Marx and Wuebker said nearly every illicit drug on the market, including marijuana, is being laced with fentanyl, and the outcome can often be fatal — a lethal dose of fentanyl, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, is just 2 milligrams, which is equal to about 10-15 grains of table salt.
“A lot of the drugs are coming through Mexico,” Wuebker said. “Because of that, it goes from the manufacturers to the big dealers, and from there, the drugs go to the local dealers.” Do the local dealers really know what they’re selling?”
Wuebker questioned whether local dealers truly know what they’re ultimately selling. Marx said the dealers are typically attempting to offer their buyers the “best product,” and he said many lace their supply with fentanyl, not knowing how much fentanyl is already in each dose.
“People need to understand this is underground crime, so their product isn’t being regulated,” the sheriff said. “These drugs are manufactured and distributed by thugs, so in trying to make the best high, they just overdo it, and that’s what makes many drugs even more unsafe than they already were without the fentanyl.”
Marx and Wuebker also agreed that the battle against fentanyl and other opioids is still raging in the heartland. The Centers for Disease Control reported more than 500,000 people died because of prescription opioid use between 1999 and 2019. And, although medical providers have reduced the numbers of opioid prescriptions written in the last five years, the pills are making their way into Winneshiek County faster than ever before, Wuebker said.
“When they first started cracking down on opioid use, the biggest hit was felt in the urban areas,” he said. “Now, we’re seeing opioids trickling more and more into our rural communities. We’re seeing more and more criminal organizations moving into rural areas to try to establish themselves here.”
Marx added that many of the opioid cases his office has seen began as legitimate treatment.
“A good portion of addicts and users started using legally-prescribed opioids because of chronic back pain, and that just snowballs,” Marx said. “That’s not everybody, but a good share of users and addicts started using because of a real pain issue.”
He said many patients who don’t continue to receive opioid pain medications from their healthcare providers subsequently buy counterfeit versions of the medication, which are also often laced with fentanyl.
In response to the opioid epidemic, multiple states settled a multi-billion dollar class action lawsuit against the top three manufacturers of opioid medications. Winneshiek County, like other states and counties, has established its own opioid taskforce, which meets twice each year and makes recommendations as to how the county should allocate its portion of the settlement funds.
Marx and Wuebker agreed another challenge in curtailing the use of drugs in the area is that many of the stereotypes of drug use and drug users are no longer applicable.
“We see all classes and types across the board struggling with addiction to all of these substances,” Wuebker said. “Anyone can be susceptible to drug use these days, and we’ve gone to plenty of houses to talk with people about the dangers of drug use and share what we see on a daily basis to try to help families out. There will always be stereotypes in the world, but the idea that drug users have no teeth and those kinds of things doesn’t represent what we see today.”
Wuebker said the sheriff’s office also focused on what they call poly-drug use — cases in which a person is using multiple illegal substances, such as methamphetamines and marijuana.
Marx said his office dedicates a significant amount of its resources to enforcement efforts when it comes to the use of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and opioids — the sheriff feels each of those drugs destroy lives faster than other illicit substances.
“Another major factor we look at is the presence of children in the home,” the sheriff said. “If there are children in the home, we’ll go after that case a lot more aggressively. When there are children in the home, that’s a major factor in deciding how many resources we’ll invest in that case.”
Marx went on to explain that, in homes where substance abuse is occurring, it is more likely children or elderly residents are also being abused as well.
“Mental health and suicides are also major components in the user’s home, so when those users and those substances are removed from the home, we can prevent a lot of that collateral damage across the county and for all demographics,” Marx said.
He and Wuebker indicated any given drug bust can also potentially reduce the frequency of other crimes in the community.
“There’s always a battle with narcotics, but what we see is localized,” Wuebker said. “When we do impact cases, we see a change locally. We don’t just see drug use in drug arrests. We see it in burglaries, break-ins and thefts. So, when we have an impact on a case, those other crimes slow down or stop also.”
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