CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Fentanyl is the biggest drug-related issue in nearly 40 years, according to opioid intervention groups on Chicago’s West Side and with the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC).
UIC’s Community Outreach Intervention Project has been around since 1987. Director Antonio Jiménez said that while there has always been an opioid problem, one of the worst examples locally was in the 1990s.
“China white was a drug that people were talking about, and there were rashes of overdoses with that,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez says that it’s very likely the dangers of fentanyl have now far surpassed what was seen during the days of China White.
“Fentanyl is just a lot more widely integrated into the drug distribution system,” he said.
The West Side Heroin and Opioid Task Force, led by Lee Roush, has partnered with UIC to provide life-saving care with Narcan to any individuals experiencing an overdose from opioids such as heroin or fentanyl.
Roush said his team and UIC have been successful in their outreach and education efforts. Dozens now visit their site each week.
His resource team also hands out strips that test for fentanyl, but Roush said those strips are in short supply.
“We get pretty much as much Narcan as we’d like through the Access Narcan program from the State of Illinois, but fentanyl test strips are not as plentiful as we’d like to have them,” Roush said.
Roush said his team could probably give out 400 – 500 fentanyl test strip kits per week, if only they had a steady enough supply.
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