Fentanyl crisis subject of town hall in Oakland County

Pontiac — Greg Swan knows the scourge of the narcotic fentanyl and what it can do to a family, even a community.

Swan, the founder of the Fentanyl Fathers nonprofit, lost his son, Drew, to a fentanyl-laced overdose at age 24 in 2013.

"It just doesn't take out just the kid, it takes out both parents at the same time," he told a town hall event convened Tuesday in Oakland County to discuss the fentanyl crisis in communities across America. "Imagine the impact of that. There's no way to hyperbolize how big the problem is and what a 911 it is and how it needs to be jumped on."

Law enforcement along with education, prevention and treatment experts joined the gathering for a broad examination of what communities, law enforcement and parents can do to tackle the crisis fueled by an increase in overdose deaths linked to the drug.

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, who led the meeting, urged parents and the public to be aware of the drug, especially in the form of counterfeit pills.

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, can be 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times as potent as morphine. It can be deadly even in small doses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Michigan, 2,223 of 2,991 drug overdose deaths in 2022 involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl, up from 1,911 in 2020, according to the state health department.

So far in 2024, there have been 79 overdose deaths in Oakland County, 72% of which were linked to fentanyl, Bouchard said. Around 42% of the deaths were linked to cocaine and 32% had both substances, he said. In the last 24 hours, the Sheriff's Office responded to three overdoses.

Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are the most common drugs involved in overdose deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can be added to other drugs like heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine to make them more powerful, and sometimes users may not know they are taking fentanyl. Fake fentanyl pills are becoming more common, with seven out of every 10 tested by the Drug Enforcement Administration nationwide containing fentanyl, said Orville Greene, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA's Detroit Office.

"I know that we train and we have resources in the Sheriff's Office and we certainly don't imply or believe that people are looking for fentanyl out there," Bouchard said. "I can tell you that our focus has been, how do we help people, how do we get them the resources, how do we find them resources? One of them is free rides to recovery — if you show up, we'll take you there."

The role of law enforcement in combatting the opioid epidemic has shifted over the past few years, said Bloomfield Township police Chief James Gallagher. Officers, who see overdoses on daily, are more focused on saving lives now than arresting people.

"This doesn't affect one population, one race, one socio-economic status, one Republican or Democrat ... it affects every single person along the way," Gallagher said. "We have to get our youth educated; we have to get sports teams educated; we have to get our coaches educated."

While there was a time when enforcement and prosecution were law enforcement's "bread and butter," education is important now, Greene said.

"We recognize that we're not going to prosecute our way out of this epidemic," Greene said. "We've recognized that education is also a huge part of that, and I think not just law enforcement ... but also with the federal prosecutors."

The town hall panelists heard from others, like Rebecca Kiessling, a family law attorney and conservative activist from Rochester Hills whose two sons died from accidental fentanyl overdoses. She called for more education and prevention resources, not just for people with substance-use disorder but their families, law enforcement officers and schools.

"I am absolutely certain my sons did not know that they were taking anything that was deadly," Kiessling said.

The event featured representatives of the Oakland County Community Health Network; the Drug Enforcement Administration; Bloomfield Township Police Department; and the Jamie Daniels Foundation, which provides support to children and families dealing with substance use disorder.

Lisa Daniels Goldman, co-founder of the foundation, suggested mandating education on substance use disorder and providing greater mental health resources in schools. Goldman, who lost her son, Jamie, in 2016 to substance-use disorder, emphasized the importance of real people telling their stories to students. Parents need to know whom to call and where to look for resources when their children are struggling, she said.

"We have no resources here," Goldman said. "There's a question how do you address that to parents who don't know where to turn?"

Helping people find answers and connecting them with treatment services is what the Oakland County Community Health Network does every day, said Megan Phillips, director of Substance Use Disorder Services. The network has started embedding school health navigators in specific communities across the county to address families' questions and concerns.

"It's a challenge we face — Oakland County is a very large county, that we're always trying to look at how can we get the word out ... until every single person in the county knows and understands what services are out there," Phillips said.

hmackay@detroitnews.com