HARTFORD, Conn. _ The menace of the synthetic cannabis known as K2 must be attacked with a law enforcement crackdown on dealers who use free handouts to build demand, but also with more drug treatment, mental health services, employment and affordable housing, state and New Haven officials said after meeting with top Trump administration drug control official Jim Carroll.
Last week's outbreak of overdoses in and around the New Haven Green park showed with searing clarity just how devastating the cheap, easily manufactured K2 can be as it cut a swath through a vulnerable population. Samples of the drugs that led to more than 100 overdoses tested positive for the synthetic cannabinoid and painkiller Fubinaca, New Haven police said Monday.
"The New Haven Green's not the problem, addiction is the problem, and those who prey on addicts are the problem," Gov. Dannell J. Malloy said at a news briefing after the meeting in New Haven.
Malloy said every community has a green, or some place that has become a hub for illicit drugs, but state Sen. Leonard Fasano, a North Haven Republican, said the city has let its historic center slip into the hands of transients and drug dealers.
Mayor Toni Harp has strongly refuted that sentiment. She joined Malloy on Monday in saying the city and state are working together to create a deeper well of services for homeless people, many of whom are dealing with multiple addictions and mental illness.
The state has provided New Haven with recovery coaches, a street psychiatrist, and replenished the city's supply of the opioid antidote Narcan, Harp said.
Carroll, who is awaiting confirmation to be the White House drug czar, said the response by New Haven police officers, fire and ambulance medics, and the hospital, showed exemplary preparation, and Harp and Malloy said the response worked like a drill.
"We did not lose one life, and for that, I will be eternally grateful," Harp said.
Malloy said the popularity of K2, also known as Spice, peaked a few years ago, receded, and has now made a comeback through the efforts of dealers willing to hand out the drug for free to build a client list.
"They do it with a purpose in mind _ there's some capitalism involved," Malloy said.
But he added that it was an insidious "trap."
Synthetic K2 is the "new scourge," Blumenthal said before the meeting at the Connecticut Mental Health Center on Park Street in New Haven.
The outbreak of overdoses "has crystallized awareness in Congress" about the urgency of the K2 menace, Blumenthal said. "The New Haven Green as a picture is worth a thousand words."
He said that for the historic green "to be ground zero (for the prevalence of K2) is a game changer."
Carroll said the Trump administration's focus is on prevention, treatment and "stopping the traffickers at the highest levels."
But Blumenthal said that ironically, with all the attention on border security, the U.S. doesn't have nearly enough opioid-sniffing dogs, and he said Trump must demand cooperation from China in helping to stem the illicit stream of fentanyl, K2 and other substances.
"China is the enemy when it comes to synthetic drugs," Blumenthal said, adding that "we are not going to arrest our way out of this problem."
He said a $3.39 billion opioid-addiction measure in Congress needs to move quickly from the judiciary committee to the floor for approval.
Blumenthal said K2 is too "cheap, easily manufactured and readily accessible" for even a state such as Connecticut, with relatively strong anti-drug resources, to fight the menace without federal help.
New Haven police said the drug samples used on the green had been sent to the Drug Enforcement Administration's testing facility after the rash of overdoses Tuesday through Friday.
City police have charged two men, John Arthur Parker and Felix Melendez, with drug possession in their probe into the overdoses.
New Haven Police Chief Anthony Campbell said there needs to be further investigation to connect the men to the K2 distributed, but each was found in possession of the drug.
One of the two men is believed to have been giving the drug away for free to build up his client list, but Campbell would not say which one.
Federal authorities have charged a third man, but his name was not immediately released.
Initially, officials had cautioned that the drugs were laced with fentanyl, but it is unclear if any of the samples tested positive for the powerful opioid.
New Haven police also said Monday that a total of 47 individuals overdosed, showing that some of those were taken to the hospital and released, returned to the green and overdosed again. No deaths were reported.
