Frank Talk on Drugs Including Molly, Fentanyl, Heroin and Newcomer W-18

At Monday’s Communities 4 Action annual meeting at UConn in Stamford, there was a presentation on the perils of vaping, and some frank discussion about drugs and Narcan.

Captain Richard Conklin of Stamford Police said his department is seeing a lot of Fentanyl mixed with morphine or Heroin.

Captain Conklin at a Communities 4 Action previous forum on opiate addiction at UConn Stamford. Credit: Leslie Yager

“W-18, we’re seeing some traces of it,” he said of the very powerful opioid , adding that it might be the next “big movement,” as it’s more powerful than even Fentanyl, which is more powerful than morphine.

“We’re seeing quite a bit of Molly and other hallucinogenic synthetic drugs,” he said.

Pharmacist John Ciuffo from Cornerstone Pharmacy in Stamford who prescribes and dispenses Narcan, talked about various forms of Narcan, their prices, and the process of getting a prescription for it. He said Narcan is available in an auto-injector device which is similar to an EpiPen.

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“And if you’re going to be suggest anybody come by for a prescription, it’s not like coming in for a regular prescription,” he said, adding that the person, typically a parent or caregiver, needs to spend about 25 minutes to go through a training video. He added that prescription Narcan is covered by most insurance plans, some more generously than others.

“If you counter a narcotic and the narcotic’s length of action is longer than the Narcan, even though the patient wakes up and looks great, they still need to go to the ER because 20 minutes later, you no longer have your injector and now you’re in a world of hurt,” warned Steven A. Weisblatt, M.D., F.A.P.A

Pharmacist Ciuffo said blister packs of pills have advantages over plastic bottles, and that said for someone prescribed a chronic opioid, or other controlled substance, the blister packs help keep track of doses.

He said he also creates blister packs for senior citizens, HIV patients, and patients on a regimen they need to maintain, but said it can be used for people on chronic opioids in order to count the pills and know whether the patient is “over-taking.”

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