As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to take its toll on America, another major health crisis is ravaging communities.
From April 2020 to April 2021 the United States likely saw over 100,000 drug overdose deaths, according to preliminary data from the CDC. In 2019, the CDC reported that 72.9% of opiate-related drug overdoses involved synthetic opioids.
One of those synthetic opioids is fentanyl, a highly potent lab-made drug used in hospital settings for the treatment of extreme pain. The DEA is finding record numbers of fentanyl-laced street drugs, including counterfeit pills made to look like pharmaceuticals.
In Peoria, harm reduction nonprofit JOLT Foundation is testing more and more substances for fentanyl — and sharing positive test results on Facebook.
In an interview with WCBU’s Hannah Alani, JOLT Director Chris Schaffner describes what he’s seeing day to day. He also discusses changes in drug policy he believes can help slow the drug overdose crisis.
The following is a transcript of an interview that aired on “All Things Peoria.” It has been edited for length and clarity.
Chris Schaffner: We've reached a point where most of our people that we serve, just assume fentanyl is in everything. So we've actually had a decrease in people asking us for fentanyl test strips, because they just assume it's in the substances. And that's fine, because you're going to take extreme caution when using them anyway. And that's what we want, people to take precautions to reduce harm. The problem is there are many different fentanyl analogs. And they don't tell you the potency of each one when you do a fentanyl test strip. So it just lets you know for the presence of that. But there are other synthetic opioids that are non-scheduled drugs, so they haven't been scheduled by the DEA as a drug of medicinal purpose. And so, you can buy those online, and you can buy those on the dark web. All of that, that moving and that shaping and shifting all the time of the substances that we're finding, again, as a result of drug policy … because when they hammer down on one, it's like sticking your finger in the dam. You plug up one hole, and another one pops up on the other side. And that is the predictable result of poor drug policy.
The other issue too, is that it's not just opioids. It's a mixture of central nervous system depressants that we're finding in substances. So think if there's oxycodone, and there's some heroin, and maybe a little bit of fentanyl, and a benzodiazepine, or an individual's taking all those or they're all pressed into a pill. Now you have three, maybe possibly four different drugs that cause respiratory depression in one batch, and that that triples, or quadruples, your risk of overdose. And again, that goes back to not being able to know the content and the purity and the adulterants that are in the substances, which is why we so strongly encourage people to test their substances.
Hannah Alani: The fentanyl test strips that you use, how much does one of those cost?
Chris Schaffner: A little over $1 a strip. We serve anywhere between 500 to 700 people a month at JOLT. Some of those are return patients, others are first time users of our services. So we go through quite a bit of them. You know, in just a couple of months, we can go through an entire supply. And up until recently, you could not purchase fentanyl test strips with federal dollars. That's changed recently. But our grant funding didn't allow us to purchase fentanyl test strips. And so a lot of that would come out of our own pockets.
Hannah Alani: When did that change?
Chris Schaffner: Just in the last year.
Hannah Alani: Wow. Can people … Can anyone just go buy one? And where do you, where do you buy a fentanyl test strip?
Chris Schaffner: So we buy them from BTNX. We order them in bulk online. I'm not sure if the average citizen can just go online and order them? But as a as a nonprofit, a public health organization, we can order them in bulk. The most effective way to tell what's in substances that are illicitly bought and sold on the streets is through a mass spectrometer. Unfortunately, those can cost 10s of 1000s of dollars. But they're extremely accurate.
Hannah Alani: How would it change what you do, if JOLT Foundation was able to afford one of those?
Chris Schaffner: I think it would just give us a very, very accurate understanding of what's happening on the streets with the drug supply. And with the drug supply, it's changing so rapidly, that when we test a sample, let's say today, in three weeks, that might be an obsolete sample.
So we want all of our services be free to everybody, right? So there's no financial barrier to them accessing these life-saving tools that they need. But there's a cost to us. And the way the way we're funded is when we do testing, HIV, Hep C, STI testing, and some harm reduction services, we’re reimbursed once we deliver that service to the individuals. We’re billed at the end of the month, and we just get reimbursed for what services we delivered. So there's not a stockpiling of cash flow that's coming in. Most of that comes through private donations. And that's something we are looking for to grow, is our donor base. People who can join us in monthly recurring donations. If we can predict the donations that are coming in every month, and we can track that, then we can maybe budget for something a lot larger scale than that. But we just don't have the donor funding for that yet.
Hannah Alani: What are some key drug policies that you think are allowing this problem to continue getting worse and worse every year?
Chris Schaffner: I think the criminalization of drugs and drug use continue to drive people underground into less and less safe practices, and using drugs are less and less predictable. So take fentanyl. Fentanyl’s the big conversation, right? Fentanyl is such a “demon drug,” that it's so powerful, and it's killing people. Well fentanyl is a very effective medication at managing acute pain, right? It's used every day in hospital settings without problem. Why? The purity of the drug is known. The dosages are managed and effective for each individual. And then there's all the medical monitoring that goes on when someone is given a substance like fentanyl. They're monitored by trained staff. All of those controls are gone on the streets.
I would personally love to see, and I know JOLT would support, safe consumption sites. These are overdose prevention sites. They exist in Canada and in Europe and around the world. Overdose deaths plummet when there's a place where people can be medically monitored, have their substances tested, and be taken care of. That doesn't hurt anyone. That person doesn't go out in the community and use and discard syringes in places that others might find them. If they're able to purchase drugs, legally, there's less of a risk of the black market. And if someone were to experience an overdose, there's someone there right away to reverse that overdose. And then what we find is that people who come into harm reduction programs and safe consumption sites are literally five times more likely to seek treatment of their own.
Hannah Alani: Are there any state or local legislators whose work in particular we should be looking at?
Chris Schaffner: I think you're locally, we need to push our City Council to remove the ordinance that was enacted several years ago that prevents mobile distribution of harm reduction services. That prevents us from going out on the streets and meeting people where they're at. It prevents us from delivering supplies to people who have transportation barriers to getting to our services. We’re unable to do that, because of the ordinance that exists in the city of Peoria.
Hannah Alani: It would obviously help you reach more people if you could physically go to them. What's the takeaway message here for the community, people who are listening to this?
Chris Schaffner: Well, I would think one, is that we just need to continue to challenge the public narrative that drug users are bad people. Right? It's much more complicated. It’s much more nuanced than that. So my first call to action would just simply be is if you hear people running down people who are struggling with substance use, call that out. Challenge that. There's a there's an awful lot more going on in that person's life that we probably don't even know about that has led them to the point where this is occurring. And so to judge someone on their current present circumstances, without thinking about the process that led them there, is really, really harmful. And so, get to know them get to know them. Get to know their stories. Be a friend to them. They're not contagious, you know. So love them, and give them unconditional positive regard. So that's what I'd say at an interpersonal level.
As far as helping JOLT, we are at the end of our year. And so, we have an end of the year fundraising campaign. You can donate by going to JOLTfoundation.org. There's a “donate” button right there. You can click, or you can mail checks or whatever you want, cash, to our Peoria office. Checks can be made payable to JOLT Foundation. Like I said, we're grant funded for certain things but only specific things. And so everything else we do is an out-of-pocket expense. And so donations are really helpful, particularly this time of year.
JOLT Foundation was established in 2012 by parents Blake and Dr. Tamara Olt following the death of their 16-year-old son, Joshua.
JOLT Foundation is located at 1411 NE Adams St. Harm reduction services include free and sterile syringe access, syringe disposal, safe drug-using supplies, safe-sex supplies, hygiene products, treatment referrals and counseling.
JOLT offers free, rapid testing for HIV and Hepatitis C. Urine tests for sexually transmitted infections including Chlamydia and Gonorrhea are sent to a state lab for results.
Also, JOLT co-founder Dr. Tamara Olt provides the following free of charge at her Peoria Women’s Health Practice:
- Training and distribution of Naloxone, a nasal spray that can save lives in the event of an opiate overdose
- A prescription for suboxone, a medication used to aid an individual experiencing withdrawal from opioid use disorder, as well as a maintenance medication to support long-term opioid use recovery
- A prescription for PrEP/PeP, an effective HIV prevention medication
Follow the JOLT Foundation on Facebook. Learn more about volunteering opportunities and how to donate online.
