Bad crack cocaine? WPD investigating possible link among five deaths since July 5
Wichita police are waiting for autopsy results for five people who’ve died along and near the South Broadway corridor since July 5 — but they say a batch of bad street drugs might have contributed to the fatalities.
At the scene of the deaths, which span from July 5 through Tuesday, investigators found evidence of crack cocaine use, Wichita police spokesman Officer Paul Cruz said in a news release. Four of the five deaths happened at motels.
“Further testing from the Sedgwick County Forensic Science Center and the Coroner’s Office will determine the actual cause of death,” Cruz wrote in the release.
But he said in each case, drug overdose “is a possible cause or contributing factor.”
Because laced drugs are hard to detect by sight even for trained investigators, the police department is warning residents to avoid taking any narcotic or prescription drugs that aren’t purchased from “a legitimate pharmacy” with a doctor’s orders.
Drugs purchased through other means, including on the street, “should be considered unsafe,” Cruz said in the release, because they may be counterfeit or “could potentially contain Fentanyl or other harmful substances.”
Fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid painkiller, is 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin and 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine and may be lethal in tiny doses. Wichita police have been warning the community of its dangers for at least two years, since a cache of fake oxycodone tablets laced with the substance turned up in a number of drug seizures the department discussed in 2019.
There were also a rash of overdose deaths from what was thought to be fentanyl-laced opioids in February 2020. That time, four people died in different parts of the city in one weekend.
In Sedgwick County, the number of Fentanyl-related deaths increased more than 466% from 2015 to 2019 — six compared to 34, the latest annual report from the Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center shows. The alarming trend continues to worry the authorities.
Nationwide, synthetic opioids, mostly illicitly manufactured fentanyl, were the primary driver of increases in overdose deaths from May 2019 to May 2020, according to a December 2020 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. During that year, more than 81,000 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses, the report says.
Cocaine-involved overdose deaths, up 26.5%, were also thought to be linked “to co-use or contamination of cocaine with illicitly manufactured fentanyl or heroin,” the CDC report says.
On Wednesday, the CDC estimated overdose deaths from all drugs rose last year to a record 93,000, or more than 250 a day.
Locally, Wichita police say the five most-recent deaths, all considered suspicious, occurred within eight days of each other:
- A 38-year-old woman died at the Trail Motel, 827 S. Broadway, on July 5.
- A 48-year-old woman died at the Bell Boy Motel, 2035 S. Broadway, on Sunday.
- A 56-year-old man died in the 100 block of East Harry on Monday.
- A 67-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman both died at the Bel Air Motel, 1822 S. Broadway, on Tuesday.
Police say if you suspect someone has overdosed on Fentanyl, you should call 911 immediately, give them a dose of the lifesaving drug naloxone — or Narcan — if it’s available, and begin rescue breathing tactics.
Anyone who has information about illegal drug sales or use is encouraged to call Wichita-Sedgwick County Crime Stoppers at 316-267-2111.
If you need help kicking a drug habit, you can call Sedgwick County’s communication mental health and addiction center Comcare at 316-660-7550.
This story was originally published July 13, 2021 at 6:12 PM.
