During his first tenure as U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of West Virginia, Bill Ihlenfeld collected a group of community leaders from the media, local governments and non-profit organizations, and civic-minded groups in an effort to spread factual information as wide as possible in hopes the education will allow some local residents to avoid abusing opiates and other narcotics.
But in the four years that passed between his resignation and his reappointment to the federal position, major changes have taken place with the ongoing and oft-deadly drug epidemic throughout the Upper Ohio Valley.
“I do believe we experienced a lot of success with that first group of community members because they put together action items that we feel made a difference that that time,” Ihlenfeld said. “We made those items were not out of reach, so they had a chance to be successful and they experienced a lot of success. And I believe engaging our community is just as important today as it was when we gathered that first group of folks.
“We have always needed to reach out to as many people who are willing to listen about this threat so they can be as prepared as possible in case it enters their lives or the lives of a loved one,” he continued. “Of course, the threat has changed since the first time I was U.S. Attorney. Now, the challenge is to educate the community about the current threat, and that threat is a deadly one.”
Fetanyl.
“The biggest change that has taken place is that the drug supply has changed. Today, within that drug supply, we have fentanyl and it is much more lethal than anything we’ve ever seen going back decades. We have never seen something so lethal be introduced into the drug supply and be so prevalent,” Ihlenfeld said. “It’s been around for a few years but it has only recently exploded because of the mass production of it by drug cartels in Mexico.
“And because of those mass production, we are seeing fentanyl being cut into most of the other drugs that have always been available in this area,” the prosecutor said. “From the last data that we have seen, we now know that it is fentanyl that has led to fatal overdoses,” he explained. “My guess, as time passes, that number will be even higher. Fentanyl has made every drug we know much more fatal that they have ever been.”
Total Saturation
The dealers are pressing pills with it. It’s now a “filler” in baggies of cocaine. The deadly narcotic is evening sprinkler on moist marijuana.
It’s a drug war, yes, but this one is between the traffickers in an attempt to provide the most provocative product on the streets.
“The reason the drug dealers are adding the fentanyl is because they are trying to kill their customers but because you’re going to get back to him more often because it’s going to supply with a better buzz that the next dealers. It’s going to grab ahold of you,” Ihlenfled said. “You’re not going to understand why that is, but you will become addicted to it and you’re not going to want to go through withdrawal.
“It really is a vicious cycle and now that fentanyl is so prevalent, the best things we can do here is try to educate as much as possible and to encourage the members of drug task forces to seize as much as possible,” he said. “As has been the case with any dangerous drug, letting the people know as much information as possible can help people as much as possible.”
Although the U.S. Attorney has not reassembled his community action group during the brief time he has been back in office, he has encouraged those under his charge to make the presence of fentanyl a major priority with members of law enforcement on local, state, and federal levels. His reasoning, of course, makes complete sense.
“We have asked our drug task forces to seize as much fentanyl as possible because every time they do, we know now they are saving lives, for sure, based on all of the recent statistics,” Ihlenfled said. “We really need to educate the public as much as possible because, because of they plan to experiment with something like cocaine or a pill or marijuana, they have to understand the chance they are taking these days. That is why we really need to get that message to our young people.
“These is no quality control. If you are getting something from someone off the streets or inside a bar, you are really rolling the dice these days,” he explained. “What we have been seeing from the lab results is that the vast majority of drugs on the streets these days contain some level of fentanyl. That is a fact today, and we need people to realize it now before it is too late for them.”
