Sessions: U.S. prosecutors will help addiction-ravaged cities

The Justice Department will dispatch 12 federal prosecutors to cities ravaged by addiction who will focus exclusively on investigating health care fraud and opioid scams that are fueling the nation’s drug abuse epidemic, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Wednesday.

He unveiled the pilot program during a speech in hard-hit Ohio, where eight people a day die of accidental overdoses. Sessions is calling the group of prosecutors the “opioid fraud and abuse detection unit” and says they will rely on data in their efforts to root out pill mills and track down doctors and other health care providers who illegally prescribe or distribute narcotics such as fentanyl and other powerful painkillers.

Such prescription opioids are behind the deadliest drug overdose epidemic in U.S. history. More than 52,000 Americans died of overdoses in 2015 – a record – and experts believe the numbers have continued to rise. Sessions has made aggressive prosecutions of drug crime a top priority, saying the deadly overdoses necessitate a return to tougher tactics.

The Health Department says opioid-related overdoses killed 3,050 Ohioans in 2015, with that number expected to jump sharply for 2016.

In June, the coroner serving the greater Columbus area said overdose deaths through April of this year rose to 173, a 66 percent jump from the same period a year ago.

The prosecutors will be based in U.S. attorney’s offices in the Middle District of Florida; the Eastern District of Michigan; the Northern District of Alabama; the Eastern District of Tennessee; Nevada; the Eastern District of Kentucky; Maryland; the Western District of Pennsylvania; the Southern District of Ohio; the Eastern District of California; the Middle District of North Carolina; and the Southern District of West Virginia.

The Middle District of Florida encompasses 35 counties, including Manatee and Sarasota, and stretches from the Georgia border on the northeast to the south of Naples, covering more than 350 miles in the state.

In Manatee County, the sheriff’s office has responded to 787 suspected overdose calls in the first six months of this year. It’s a 156 percent increase when compared with 307 calls between January and June of 2016, according to calls for service data provided by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.

In some overdose cases, EMS administers naloxone, commonly known by the brand name Narcan, to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. In 2015, there were 1,366 naloxone administrations and 2,521 last year. In the first half of 2017, naloxone has already been administered 1,440 times in Manatee County.

While naloxone can save lives, overdoses can still be fatal. According to the Medical Examiners Commission annual report, in 2015 Manatee County had the highest number of deaths per capita among Florida’s 67 counties in which the medical examiner found a presence of heroin, fentanyl, morphine or cocaine.

Fentanyl and carfentanyl are opioids 50 and 100 times more powerful than morphine.

In the first three months of 2017, Medical Examiner Dr. Russell Vega saw at least 23 drug overdose deaths in Manatee County. Of the 23 deaths reported by Vega, 15 involved fentanyl, fentanyl analogs or heroin.

Vega previously told the Herald the 2017 numbers are on par with what he saw last year, but the number of deaths have increased since 2015.

In May, Sessions instructed the nation’s federal prosecutors to bring the toughest charges possible against most crime suspects. Critics assailed the move as a return to failed drug-war policies that unduly affected minorities and filled prisons with nonviolent offenders.

The announcement was a reversal of Obama-era policies that is sure to send more people to prison and for much longer terms.

Advocates warned the shift would crowd federal prisons and strain Justice Department resources. Some involved in criminal justice during the drug war feared the human impact would look similar.

This story was originally published August 2, 2017 at 9:54 PM with the headline "Sessions: U.S. prosecutors will help addiction-ravaged cities."