After Overdoses, Back To ​“Normal”

Chris Carey didn’t shudder when he heard that 16 people overdosed on drugs within six hours in New Haven. He’s seen plenty of fellow addicts die already. And he’s sure that he’ll know it if he obtains additive-laced heroin again — and that he’ll take it slowly enough to stay alive.

After 20 years wrestling with heroin addiction, Carey took a longer-view approach of New Haven’s public-health emergency as he picked up his daily dose of methadone Friday at the APT clinic on Congress Avenue. Meanwhile, authorities reported that the victims overdosed on not just fentanyl-laced heroin or cocaine, but on another unidentified additive that caused severe lung irritation keeping them from breathing without extra oxygen.

Overnight the city robocalled thousands of citizens and issued a public health emergency warning: An apparent bad batch of street drugs had led to overdoses all over town Thursday. Two of the victims — a 64-year-old man found in the Bowen Field parking lot and a woman found with her mother inside a car in the Walgreens parking lot at George and York streets — died.

Firefighters revived two more people from overdoses on Friday by 1 p.m., according to Assistant Fire Chief Matt Marcarelli. He said he’s not assuming those stemmed from the Thursday batch — because daily overdoses are the new normal in New Haven.

Similar overdoses have occurred across the country due to increased use of the powerful, deadly additive fentanyl in heroin sold on the street. Authorities have proclaimed it an epidemic. In New Haven, cops and firefighters are working with a special U.S. Attorney-organized task force. Authorities, including public-health officials, said at a Friday press conference at police headquarters that both cocaine and and heroin users are at risk, and announced the availability of the overdose antidote and free clean needles. (More on that press conference later in this article.)

Carey saw the emergency warning on TV at 4:30 a.m. It didn’t change his routine, he said. He showed up hours later at the clinic for his daily methadone dose. He’s been trying to stay off heroin, he said, though he does still use it.

“It doesn’t scare me,” he said of the latest overdoses. ​“It’s not like they’re putting in rat poison.”

“Do you know how many people I know who died over this shit? It’s ridiculous. They say if you go into recovery, you wear a black suit. You’ll be going to a lot of funerals,” he said.

Carey, who said he is 38 and lives in East Haven, said he has encountered fentanyl before in his on-and-off-again heroin use.

“This is not anything new. People have been cutting heroin with fentanyl for a long time,” he said. ​“I can tell, looking at it, if it’s [there]. The fentanyl is crystally, you know what I mean?”

If he does encounter fentanyl, he said, he ​“would test it slower. I would try one bag at a time. If you see how powerful it is at first, you can pace yourself.”

Does that work?

“It does for me,” he said. ​“I’m not dead.”

Still, he’d prefer to avoid using fentanyl-laced heroin: ​“I’d rather do real shit than fentanyl. Fentanyl doesn’t last as long. It doesn’t have that real heroin feel. If you’re a user, you can tell the difference.”

Ultimately, he said, he really would prefer not to be hooked, period. He was introduced to heroin at 17. Carey’s family moved around a lot during his childhood; his father was a Nike salesman. ​“I’ll try anything once. I just fell in love with it. It was great. The body buzz — just put a warm blanket around it.”

Carey said he has worked pretty steadily as a line cook and tattoo artist. He has gone sober for stretches as long as eight months and two years, then relapsed, he said.

He relapsed a few weeks ago after a personal setback.

“I got into a relationship too quickly. It kind of blew up in my face,” he said. ​“I got depressed. I got back to what I do best.”

Then, a week ago, he hit bottom and decided to return to the methadone clinic. He’s also seeking help to avoid becoming homeless.

“I’m a much better person off it. It’s hard, man. I get bored — boredom is the key for me. I get an idea in my head. Maybe something bad happens. Or somebody asks me if I want some.” And he’s back.

He’s hoping he can stay straight for good this time. His dream is to open a tattoo shop. ​“I can’t do that,” he noted, ​“when I’m doing drugs.” (You can hear a full interview with Carey, on WNHH radio’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program, in a sound file at the bottom of this article.)

“Not Just Fentanyl”

Connecticut’s governors and two U.S. senators Friday promised help to New Haven in the wake of the overdoses. Meanwhile, local and federal fire and law-enforcement officials joined public-health officials at a 1 Union Ave. press conference about the added danger of using cocaine or heroin.

Firefighters said they recognized the obvious signs of heroin overdoses when they rescued people on Thursday. However, some of those revived said they believed they had bought cocaine.

Testing remains to be done to know for sure. In the meantime, officials cautioned both cocaine and heroin users in town to beware.

Testing the substance is a difficult process and the city does not have the right resources to do it well. The fire department has on-site equipment, but the results are not as accurate as those from the state Drug Enforcement Administration, which takes longer.

“The arduous task is to take all this information and funnel it to the dealer or supplier,” police spokesman Officer David Hartman said.

“It’s anyone’s guess what’s in this,” said Police Chief Dean Esserman.

Yale-New Haven Hospital Emergency Medicine doctor Gail D’Onofrio said at the press conference that more than 20 patients who had overdosed on the drug had been transported to either the York Street or St. Raphael campuses.

The problem is not necessarily the fentanyl itself, but an added adulterant intended to increase the volume of the drug for sale, she said. That adulterant caused an extreme medical reaction in people in which their oxygen levels dropped dramatically. Doctors had to put many of the victims on artificial respiration. There was more irritant to the lungs than found in the typical heroin overdose, she said.

“This isn’t just fentanyl,” she said. ​“It’s something in combination with this. This is not what you’ve seen before. You can’t say that you know how much to take. Everybody is at risk.”

Since the users thought they were doing cocaine, and were not accustomed to an opiate like heroin, they were even more susceptible to the effects.

“Many users think they know everything,” D’Onofrio said, including how much to take, whether intravenously or nasally. ​“This is the time to say, ​‘Let’s not do this.’”

“Everyone is at risk. We’re here to help.”

Anyone in the community who wants access to clean syringes or the antidote Narcan can contact the city’s department of public health, said Martha Okafor, who heads the Community Services Administration. The number is (203) 901‑7687. Officials have also set up an anonymous tip line at (203) 946‑6098.

“We can train people and families to use it. It’s not administered by police or fire” officials, she said. ​“When you see someone overdosing, you supply it. We can do more preventative work by getting the ammunition to the communities so people have access.”

The public health department released the Narcan antidote to the Emergency Operations Center, in order to replenish the city’s supply. An emergency health care capacity meeting was called for 2 p.m. — including D’Onofrio, the fire department and health officials — in order to figure out a plan to triage and refer any future victims, she said.

Click on the above sound file to hear the full press conference.

And click on or download the above audio to listen to a discussion on WNHH radio’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program with Chris Carey about his life and his addiction and about the heroin epidemic.