×

Danger in the mail

Police intercept shipments of unregulated drugs in Northeast Michigan

News Photo by Julie Riddle Packages of etizolam, an uncontrolled substance endangering northern Michigan, are displayed at Michigan State Police headquarters after they were seized by federal agents while bound for Alcona County.

ALPENA — A bill by state Rep. Sue Allor, R-Wolverine, addresses the emergence of an unregulated class of drugs that endangers northern Michigan lives

Etizolam, a prescription medication in some overseas countries, is one of a class of drugs regularly purchased and sold in local counties, according to Huron Undercover Narcotics Team Commander Detective Lt. Stuart Sharp.

Similar to Xanax, Valium, and other benzodiazepines, a class of medicines often used to treat anxiety, etizolam can be purchased online by anyone without a prescription.

In northern Michigan, where cocaine, heroin, and other street drugs may not be as simple to obtain as in a more metropolitan area, etizolam and other unregulated drugs are easy to obtain and therefore easy to abuse, police say.

Allor’s plan would classify etizolam as a Schedule I controlled substance, a classification reserved for medications that have no accepted medical use and have a high potential for abuse and dependence. Though etizolam is not regulated in Michigan, it does fall under federal regulations and is also regulated by 16 other states.

Schedule I drugs include ecstasy, peyote, and marijuana.

Drugs with some accepted medical use but still a high potential for abuse, including methamphetamines, opium, morphine, fentanyl, and cocaine, fall under Schedule II.

The northern impact of etizolam was brought to Allor’s attention by a lieutenant in the Cheboygan County Sheriff’s Department. Allor’s bill was introduced in the state House in September and referred to a committee on health policy for review.

Allor did not respond to requests for comment.

‘COMING THROUGH THE MAIL’

Medications prescribed by a physician can be ordered more cheaply from foreign sellers.

HUNT regularly intersects with people with two, four, even eight prescriptions from their doctors who don’t use any of those drugs for themselves but instead sell them for a profit, Sharp said.

It’s even easier to purchase drugs like etizolam, available without a prescription because it is unregulated.

“Most of them are coming through the mail,” Sharp said. “They’re not regulated. They’re mass-produced in other countries. Kids are able to do an internet search and find out what the next cool thing is.”

Shipments of etizolam and several other synthetic drugs to Northeast Michigan counties were intercepted in October by federal agents.

A Montmorency County residence was the intended destination for a package of N-ethylhexedrone, a Schedule I drug, shipped from the Netherlands. N-ethylhexedrone was reported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in 2017 to be the most persistent and most prevalent synthetic drug seized at international borders.

HUNT detectives took possession of the pills and an investigation remains open.

A separate shipment of the drug N-ethylhexedrone, as well as another stimulant substance, was intercepted on its way to an Alpena residence the same month.

A package of more than 1,000 etizolam pills from Singapore, destined for a doorstep in Alcona county, was stopped by federal agents and is now in the possession of HUNT.

Several shipments of tapentadol, an opioid pain medication used to treat moderate to severe pain and also sold illicitly, were intercepted on their way to a Presque Isle residence.

‘NEW PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES’

Synthetic drugs — a range of drugs designed to mimic established scheduled drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy, or LSD — exploded into a new market about a decade ago with a new category of drugs classified as “new psychoactive substances.”

Sometimes called “legal highs,” the substances pose a risk to public health because, largely unregulated and with an unpredictable effect, they are often easily obtainable through sources such as online ordering.

The new psychoactive substances market is worldwide, with 888 substances in over 100 countries reported by the end of 2018, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

More emerge every year, at an average rate of about one substance per week.

Regulation for synthetic drugs has not become standard internationally, and internet marketing provides an ease of sale that sidesteps national borders.

To stay ahead of laws that would prohibit them, manufacturers of the drugs develop new versions of the drugs rapidly, which leads to untested, unregulated medications in which chemicals are constantly changing and in which ingredients can vary widely from batch to batch. Severe and unpredictable symptoms, such as seizures, suicidal thoughts, and psychotic episodes are attributed to the drugs’ use.

One synthetic drug, with a street name of N-Bomb, was ingested by a Montmorency County man in 2016 as he celebrated his impending entry in the Air Force. Hours later, enraged to senselessness by the drug, he had murdered his friend and a nearby resident, according to court records, and is now serving at least 22 years in prison.

The four October shipments are only a few among scores of packages of medicines, purchased through a simple click of a mouse, headed from foreign countries into American homes. Sharp flipped through pages of records of drugs seized under suspicion that their contents were intended for non-medically indicated use.

“How many different crimes could occur because of these things?” Sharp mused, remembering a day, before he began work in Alpena, when he held a teenager as she lay dying on her graduation day after being hit by someone driving under the influence of a medication. “You don’t know how these things are going to hurt people.”

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today