Fentanyl Crisis Leads To More LI Narcan Stations: 'Race Against Time'

LONG ISLAND, NY — With the nation marking Fentanyl Awareness Day Tuesday, Long Islanders continued a valiant effort to save lives — including the expansion of a Narcan station program on the East End.

National Fentanyl Awareness Day, according to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration aims to highlight awareness and decrease demand for fentanyl, a highly addictive synthetic opioid.

Fentanyl, the DEA said, is involved in more deaths of Americans under 50 than any cause of death, including heart disease, cancer, homicide, suicide and other accidents.

The DEA pointed out that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 107,375 people in the United States died of drug overdoses and drug poisonings in the 12-month period ending in January 2022.

"A staggering 67 percent of those deaths involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Some of these deaths were attributed to fentanyl mixed with other illicit drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin, with many users unaware they were actually taking fentanyl. Only two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a potentially lethal dose; it’s particularly dangerous for someone who does not have a tolerance to opioids," the DEA said.

A cloak of mourning hung heavy over Greenport in 2021 after a batch of fentanyl-laced cocaine led to eight overdoses and six deaths over eight days on the North Fork and Shelter Island.

That loss continues to reverberate and in March, Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital, the Greenport Village Improvment District, Greenport Harbor Brewing Co. and Community Action for Social Justice came together to unveil new Narcan rescue stations.

The rescue stations were situated in North Fork establishments, including bars, breweries and restaurants, to prevent potential opioid overdoses.

According to Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital officials on Tuesday, efforts are continuing to install the Narcan rescue stations across the East End.

"Since the program launched, we have expanded to nearly 20 establishments throughout the North Fork and are planning to install stations in Southold Town, Mattituck parks. We are working with Kait's Angels to install the stations at the Southold, Mattituck and Greenport school districts. SBELIH is also planning to expand the program to the South Fork," hospital officials said.

Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds, president and chief executive officer of the Family and Children's Association in Mineola, spoke with Patch about the fentanyl crisis this week.

"We’ve been telling folks who use a drug to assume that there’s fentanyl in most street drugs — because there is," Reynolds said.

The biggest challenge right now is counterfeit pills designed to resemble Xanax and ADHD medications, he added.

"The proliferation of anxiety and depression among young people post-COVID, a shortage of mental health programs and supply chain issues with ADHD meds, have propelled folks to street-level dealers peddling counterfeit pills that are often contaminated with fentanyl," Reynolds said. "We call those ‘poisonings’ rather than ‘overdoses’ because these aren’t victims who used too much of a drug, but rather people who consumed one drug that was actually another that is far more powerful and deadly. If someone puts cyanide in my breakfast cereal, I didn’t overdose on cereal."

He added: "The fix? All the things we should have figured out 15 years ago when heroin once again reared its head."

Those solutions, Reynolds said, include evidence-based prevention, harm reduction strategies, including the distribution of fentanyl tests strips and Naloxone, access to treatment on demand and better support for people in recovery.

Despite the grim reality, Reynolds pointed to rays of hope: Suffolk County recently distributed opioid settlement dollars and New York has started to do the same; the just passed state budget contains a "huge" investment in mental health programs, he said.

"It’s an exciting time, but it also feels like a race against time as the body count continues to rise and more families face the horror of losing a loved one to a preventable condition."

Lawmakers also spoke at a press conference in Hauppauge Tuesday. "Fentanyl Awareness Day: Sounding the Alarm About the Single Deadliest Drug Threat in Our Nation's History."

Anthony Rizzuto, director of provider relation at the Seafield Center, which has locations across Long Island said: "With mental health issues at an all-time high today, more and more people are desperately looking for relief in a powder or pill. Unfortunately, they don't know that more than 60 percent of pills and powders brought illicitly contain fentanyl — and so they are at much greater risk than they realize."

Stories of those lost are deeply personal. Samantha Payne-Markel, who lost her boyfriend Seth Tramontana on that dark summer night in Greenport in 2021, has started a non-profit organization, The Gold Boots Foundation — named after his signature gold boots, so beloved he wore them until he needed tape to hold them together — to celebrate his rich life and loving spirit.

Remembering that last day in a prior Patch interview, Payne-Markel said she had asked Seth to accompany her to her women's softball league that night. Seth opted to go out instead, she said.

She texted him when she got home and heard nothing. Then in the morning, when she would normally wake up to a text, still, there was silence. By noon, she sent him a text and hadn't heard back.

"There was a group chat with people . . Someone said Seth was dead. I was so mad. I said, 'That's completely impossible. It's not true.' It seemed impossible."

Later, while she was still at work, Payne-Markel spoke with Seth's best friend, who told her he was in the hospital. When she got to the hospital, she headed to the nurses' station, where she was told to sit down and wait for a doctor.

"I still had hope," she said.

The doctors confirmed the news that changed her life forever. "I just fell to my knees and started screaming," Payne-Markel said.

Fentanyl, Payne-Markel changed everything, creating a deadly scenario people weren't even aware existed.

Remembering her love, Payne-Markel said,: "Seth Tramontana was thoughtful, open-hearted and a kind soul. If you needed $5 and he only had $4, you would be walking away $4 richer. He was universally loved by anybody that met him. A free spirit whose love for music was instilled in him by his father at a very early age and stayed with him until the day he left this world. He was a unique person — known for his individuality, gentle heart and signature style."

"I’m not saying he was a saint," she added. "He was the life of the party –but he was battling his own demons and would often self-medicate with drugs and alcohol. I mention this because the stigma of drug users has been that they are dangerous and out of control but the reality is that the grasp that cocaine along with other barbiturates has on our community is far-reaching and can affect everyone from your neighbors to your friends and family. If you think you don’t know anyone that is currently using and this problem does not affect you, my guess is that you are wrong. No matter what happened, the love that I felt from Seth and the love I had for him never diminished, no matter the battles we went through."

She spoke candidly on the devastating fentanyl crisis that's ravaging lives.

"Seth’s death saved lives, mine included. It was a wake-up call for me, someone who had always given themselves a timeline for when I would stop, a timeline that was for me, ever extending. When we lost so many innocent souls that night of August 13, 2021 you would think that it would have stopped users in their tracks, but time goes by and the drug dealers remain with a customer base that is always changing. And it’s not necessarily people who are using every single night. These are hardworking, local people who are fighting their own demons or in all honestly sometimes just want to party. Fentanyl laced drugs are everywhere, the threat is not going anywhere and with the summer coming, it’s only going to get worse," she said.

Payne-Markel told Patch she's fully supportive of the Narcan stations on the North Fork and across the East End.

"I hate to say it and I hope it's not true, but this will probably save someone s life by the end of summer. If this had been available that night, Seth would not have died," she said.