One Eatonton woman died last week from what is believed to be an overdose of a new street drug. Four others also overdosed, and two of them are still hospitalized. Two people were arrested, according to authorities. And Putnam County Sheriff’s Lt. Harry Luke is warning others about the deadly capabilities of the new drug. It is sold online as a designer drug called “Clonazolam.”
“It’s ordered off the dark web and with drugs you get off the dark web, you never know what they actually are,” Luke said, who is an investigator with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. “I looked it up and the first thing that came up was a skull and crossbones. If your drug has a skull and crossbones, you need to stay away from it.”
All of the above-mentioned victims are Eatonton residents who purchased the drug in Putnam County, but the overdoses took place in Milledgeville. All five happened in a three-day span, Wednesday, April 20, through Saturday, April 23, Luke said. The woman who died was in her 30s.
“The ones who didn’t die were lucky enough to have gotten Narcan, but she didn’t because they waited too late to call,” he said and emphasized that, according to Georgia law, neither the caller nor the victim can be arrested or charged when they call 911 for medical assistance at the scene of a drug overdose, even if small amounts of drugs or drug paraphernalia are visible at the scene.
After receiving anonymous tips of where the drug was purchased, Luke and other PCSO deputies went to the house on Friendship Road. The two people arrested were already known to the law enforcement officers due to prior arrests and convictions on similar charges. According to jail records, they are Nicholas Adam Humphries, 30, and Melissa Nicole Chamberlain, 34, both of 142 Friendship Rd., Eatonton. Both were initially charged with possession of methamphetamine, but other charges are pending results from the crime lab, Luke said. Humphries also was charged with probation violation.
“He ran out the back door, so we used the K-9 to find him,” Luke said. “He ran so fast that he ran out of his shoes.” The officers found approximately 60 pills suspected to be Clonazolam in a magnetic box stuck underneath the suspects’ vehicle. They also found methamphetamine, which Luke said he suspects may have been obtained in Baldwin County in a trade-off for some of the pills.
“They’d been ordering hundreds of the pills. They came in the mail, and we found the USPS box. We suspect they traded some of the pills for meth, and then the meth people are selling the pills in Baldwin,” he explained.
The pills may be ordered off the dark web for approximately $1 each and are sold on the street for approximately $10 each, the investigator surmised. He said the suppliers mix the chemicals in a pill press, generating approximately 20,000 pills per hour.
The green or blue pills confiscated in Eatonton reportedly were labeled “Alprazolam” (Xanax), but field tested positive for Fentanyl. The blue pills had the number B-7-0-7 stamped into them, and the green ones S-90-B.
“Don’t go by what it says on the package. It says Alprazolam, but it’s got other stuff in there,” Luke advised.
He noted that Alprazolam is a benzodiazepine, which is a depressant. If it’s combined with an opiate (such as Fentanyl), then it becomes fatal.
“It depends on the person’s tolerance level,” he explained. “Some people have a high tolerance for benzos, and some have a high tolerance level for opiates. But if you combine the two together, it becomes fatal. If you’re already using heroin (an opiate) and then take Alprazolam to calm down your anxiety, you are essentially killing yourself.”
Luke said many people purchase drugs off the dark web because they are marketed there as a pharmaceutical drug, such as a generic version of popular prescriptions but require no prescription to purchase. He said the drugs come from Singapore, China, Mexico or other countries. He said one local man recently ordered what he thought was Tramadol from Singapore, but when it came, it tested positive for Fentanyl.
“Fentanyl is really bad right now,” he warned, noting that it is surfacing in a variety forms. “They’re even diluting Fentanyl into a liquid and putting it on paper which can be licked to get high,” he added. “That’s happening a lot in prisons right now.”
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills added that the liquid form also is sprayed on marijuana. He said he is concerned for his deputies because Fentanyl also has been known to be fatal through transdermal contact. He strongly urges his deputies to wear gloves when confiscating street drugs because even a miniscule amount can be fatal.