Alaska fentanyl problem warrants help from federal and local agencies

Out of all 50 states, Alaska had the highest increase in percentage of deaths by overdose, according to a 2022 report by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. 

The rates of death by overdose in the state increased by 74% in 2021 compared to the previous year, the report stated.

This spike in overdoses has been attributed to the heightened trafficking of fentanyl, with 6 out of 10 overdoses in Alaska attributed to fentanyl consumption.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that produces an intense high, usually only prescribed for severe pain. According to the CDC, fentanyl can be 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.

Inflow of illicit fentanyl has increased across the United States, and the DEA reports that just two milligrams of fentanyl can be potentially lethal. Fentanyl could be mixed in with counterfeit medicine or drugs unbeknownst to the consumer, making them more addictive and deadly.

“Of the 140 fentanyl overdose deaths that occurred in Alaska in 2021, 61% also involved methamphetamine while 28% also involved heroin,” DHSS wrote in a press release. This past November, Alaska State Trooper’s Statewide Drug Enforcement Unit obtained more than 4,100 counterfeit oxycodone pills dosed with fentanyl.

A recent public safety alert by the DEA warns citizens of the statistical danger of consuming pills. According to a DEA laboratory analysis, for every ten false prescription pills laced with fentanyl, at least six will contain a lethal dosage. 

In 2018 federal and local law enforcement agencies across Alaska joined forces to tackle the state's drug crisis under the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, known as HIDTA, to dismantle organized crime and drug trafficking in the state. 

Alaska is a highly targeted landscape for drug trafficking as its remoteness rewards a higher retail prices on drugs transported here.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Illegal fentanyl production likely takes place both in and outside of U.S. borders, making it difficult to track. 

Counterfeit pills imitating prescription medicine are theorized by the DEA to be mass-produced by both the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco Cartel at various “pill mills'' throughout the United States and Mexico, with materials from China. One of these operations, located in Mexico City and linked to Sinaloa, was shut down by the DEA in 2018.

Various federal and local agencies have been uncovering Sinaloa operations and operatives in a joint investigation since 2016. In September 2021, U.S. Attorneys indicted a member of the Sinaloa Cartel — naming him a "drug kingpin” — for leading a drug trafficking route between Mexico and Alaska, according to a press release by the Department of Justice. 

The cartel recruited Alaskan couriers through social media to travel to Mexico to transport drugs back into the state, the DOJ wrote. Couriers typically carried about 250 grams of narcotics on each trip.

But the trafficking continues on without its leader and HIDTA continues its fight against Alaska’s opioid crisis. In April 2022, two different seizures by HIDTA task forces in Anchorage and Craig produced around 4,700 counterfeit fentanyl pills.

Organizations throughout Alaska are also helping to mediate the effects of this overdose crisis.

On Jan. 31, 2022, a standing order was issued by the state allowing local organizations to distribute overdose rescue kits. 

These rescue kits include naloxone medication called Narcan. Naloxone provides temporary relief from the effects of an overdose so medical treatment can be administered. 

Narcan rescue kits as well as fentanyl test strips are available to the public for free at any partner organization location.