INDIANAPOLIS — Sherman Carter, a paramedic with the Anderson Fire Department, said he wanted to paint a picture as he addressed the people who had spent the better part of a day hearing about synthetic drugs.
He pointed to the reactions from paramedics in Madison County to overdose calls from dispatch and how those feelings have changed.
Initially, it was just "Overdose?” he said. “Nowadays, it’s, ‘Overdosed on what? Is it just heroin? Is it heroin laced with something else? What am I going to find when I get to the house?’”
Often, when paramedics go on an overdose call, there’s more than one victim or heroin is laced with other drugs, which are frequently synthetic. Fentanyl is one of those drugs, and it was a large part of a discussion Thursday at an educational summit put on by the Association of Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys called “A Closer Look at Marijuana and Synthetic Drugs.”
Carter depicted a scene of a mom who overdosed and couldn’t be revived until after she was given eight milligrams of naloxone, a drug that reverses opiate overdoses. The doses of the drug, commonly known by the brand name Narcan, are between 0.4 and 2 milligrams each.
He also spoke of a man to whom he administered naloxone at 1 a.m. one day and then again at 5 p.m. the next day.
A common theme throughout the seminar was that penalties for drug crimes need to be higher and drug dealers need to be incarcerated for longer.
“We are trying to prosecute these people, but the penalties are very insignificant for the harm that they are causing,” said Rodney Cummings, Madison County prosecutor.
The morning of the seminar at the Indiana Historical Society was filled with informative lectures about the impact of legalizing marijuana in Colorado and industrial hemp research. As the day grew on, fentanyl, a synthetic opiate that is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, and other synthetic drugs took the stage.
Attendees got a first-hand look at the severity of drug addiction problems in Madison County as Carter shared his experiences. Cummings said 239 people in Madison County overdosed on drugs last year.
John Pistole, president of Anderson University and keynote speaker for the seminar, shared his own experience with morphine, even though his use was legal.
After having a spinal fusion following a car accident in his youth, Pistole said he would catch himself wanting morphine sooner than his four hours between doses were up.
“It felt like a dependency, and I needed to have it,” he said. “I can’t imagine those of you who work with addicts when they are in recovery in things that are on an ongoing, daily basis.”
Pistole said a few ways Anderson might be able to improve the current drug addiction situation is by the public investing more tax dollars for education and prevention and the creation of more jobs in the community.
Pistole, who is formerly an FBI deputy director, explained how the sale of drugs can affect national security. He said a large amount of hashish is what helps fund the Islamic State, the jihadist militant group.
“Any time you have drug proceeds, there is a correlation between that money and potential for higher public corruption,” he said.