Coeur d'Alene forum tackles fentanyl crisis

COEUR d’ALENE — No one is immune to dying or losing a loved one because of a fentanyl overdose.

“It’s all of us,” Josh Hurwit, U.S. Attorney for the District of Idaho, told a crowd of about 50 people Thursday. “It’s happened to really wealthy families. It’s happened to really poor families. It’s happened to really smart kids. It’s happened to kids who were struggling. It’s happened to people with substance abuse issues, and it’s happened to people who just experimented one time and made a bad decision.”

Hurtwit joined state and local authorities for a community forum about fentanyl and efforts to combat the drug in the region. The forum was organized by the Coeur d’Alene Regional Chamber and hosted by North Idaho College.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid estimated by the Centers for Disease Control to be more potent than morphine, used to treat severe pain, such as advanced cancer pain.

Hurwit described the global supply chain that brings illicit fentanyl to communities in North Idaho and elsewhere.

Precursor chemicals are typically produced in Asia and then shipped to Mexico, he said, where the chemicals are used to manufacture fentanyl. The drug is then smuggled into the U.S., often in the form of pills or powder. Hurwitt said fentanyl enters the U.S. through the northern and southern borders and is most frequently brought in by Americans.

Though some people seek out fentanyl specifically, Hurwitt said the substance is often pressed into pills resembling prescription medications and some people consume them without realizing they contain unregulated, inconsistent and dangerous amounts of fentanyl.

“Now fentanyl is found in every street drug,” said John Kempf, the retired Idaho State Police District 1 captain. “Fentanyl is found in cocaine. Fentanyl is found in methamphetamine. Fentanyl is found in drugs that are very popular with our youth, such as MDMA or ecstasy or Molly as the kids call it.”

The drug is so potent that just two milligrams, an amount small enough to fit on the tip of a pencil, can be fatal.

Last year, Hurwit said, 354 Idahoans died from opioid overdoses. In 2022, 42 people died due to overdoses in Kootenai County.

Capt. Jeremy Hyle, who leads the command staff at the Kootenai County jail, said 54 people are currently incarcerated on charges related to fentanyl. Of those, 31% are Kootenai County residents.

“It’s not a Washington problem,” Hyle said. “There are people from our community who are sitting in jail on fentanyl charges.”

The problems caused by fentanyl are countywide.

“Fentanyl just took one of our tribal members last week,” said Coeur d’Alene Tribe Police Chief Sam Abrahamson. “It’s happening everywhere.”

Abrahamson described a woman he’s known since childhood who struggles with substance abuse problems and takes up to 20 pills each day. Though she’s aware of the great risk of a fatal overdose, the addiction to fentanyl is even greater and she’s unable to stop.

“Fentanyl just consumes you,” Abrahamson said.

A father of two teen girls, Abrahamson emphasized the importance of educating children and teens about the dangers of fentanyl and other illegal substances.

Both Hurwit and Kempf pointed to the 2021 overdose death of Michael Stabile, a 15-year-old Lake City High School student, as an early but critical moment in North Idaho’s fentanyl crisis.

Stabile died in his bedroom after consuming half a pill he believed to be Percocet. Unbeknownst to him, the pill was counterfeit and contained a fatal amount of fentanyl.

“When Michael died, he was the second teen in our community who had died from fentanyl poisoning,” Kempf said.

In response, ISP created the Idaho State Police Fentanyl Education Project, which offers presentations to groups about the dangers of the drug. These presentations are offered in school settings.

Education is just one part of a larger push to combat fentanyl in Idaho. Also in play are efforts by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and county prosecutors to prosecute fentanyl dealers and traffickers, as well as a pre-arrest program developed by ISP that diverts some low-level offenders into treatment, rather than arrest.

“It’s here,” Hyle said of the fentanyl crisis. “It’s now. We’re dealing with it on the law enforcement level and the prosecutor’s level. But the community needs to help and we all need to band together to fight the problem.”