We all know well at this point that we’re in the midst of an escalating epidemic, one driven not by a pathogen but by a man-made drug, the potent opioid fentanyl. The substance’s daily brutality can sometimes fade into the background, until a particular horror forces us to refocus our attention on its deadly reach.
Such a horror came Friday in the form of the death of one-year-old Nicholas Dominici, who lost his young life after an apparent exposure to fentanyl at the Divino Niño Day Care in the Bronx. The facts are all still emerging, but the working theory is that Carlisto Acevedo Brito, a cousin of day care proprietor Grei Mendez’s husband, to whom Mendez was renting a room in the home from which she ran the business, was selling fentanyl wholesale from the apartment.
Both are now charged with murder and additional crimes in relation to the death of Nicholas and injuries to several other children.
Fentanyl is an obstinate problem, and we have yet to figure out the exact right strategy for dealing with it. Drugs like heroin and cocaine need costly natural precursors — poppy and coca, respectively — that must be cultivated en masse, an expensive and labor-intensive process.
Fentanyl is entirely synthetic, made from precursor chemicals that while not exactly easy to find are fairly straightforward and cheap to manufacture and which allow the drug to be produced in relatively self-contained labs in significant quantities.
There’s no realistic level of street seizures that will meaningfully put a dent in supply, as more can always be made. The authorities could arrest a dozen people a day with a kilo each — the amount found in the apartment, alleged to be Brito’s — and it would be quickly replaced on the street. There’d certainly still be plenty enough of the stuff to keep killing people left and right, grownups and children.
Throwing the book at low-level people intentionally or inadvertently selling or sharing small quantities of fentanyl hidden in other drugs or by itself isn’t going to help. In the worst cases, overly punitive policies can actually stop people from seeking help when they are experiencing or witnessing drug abuse and overdose.
No, while there must be consistent enforcement, a new war on drugs approach will not only be misguided and likely unevenly applied, but ultimately ineffective at actually preventing overdoses and deaths. Instead, enforcement should be thoughtfully targeted at upstream actors who are importing and distributing the deadly narcotic, who are facilitating its diffusion into communities around the city. On the ground, we must focus on targeting demand.
That means expanding harm reduction initiatives that will help people stop abusing opioids in the first place — initiatives like the proven model of overdose prevention centers, which in addition to reversing life-threatening overdoses funnel clients into resources for long-term recovery — and getting more comfortable with the notions of testing other drugs for fentanyl and allowing people to dispose of contaminated substances safely without fear of criminal reprisal.
In the wake of a horrific tragedy like this there is an understandable clamoring for immediate action. By all means, yes, but there’s a wide gulf between letting fentanyl flow freely and a crackdown that fails. We have to be smart about this, for kids like Nicholas.
New York Daily News Editorial Board
Source link
