Heroin becoming 'hands off' for Muncie police

MUNCIE, Ind. – Heroin has become a “hands-off” substance for many Muncie police officers.

That’s because the street drug is increasingly being “cut” with even more lethal substances like fetanyl and an especially powerful opiate known as carfentanil, so potent that it is used to tranquilize elephants.

Heroin laced with such opiates can become so powerful that it can cause physical reactions, or even overdoses, through incidental contact such as touching.

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“There have been reports (of emergency responders becoming ill from incidental contact with the drugs) from around the nation,” Delaware County Prosecutor Jeffrey Arnold said Friday.

For years, many city police officers have conducted “field” tests to preliminarily confirm seized substances were heroin.

In many instances, such substances are now being forwarded directly to state laboratories for analysis, without the contact that field testing can require.

“It’s just not worth the risk,” Muncie Police Chief Joe Winkle said.

Awaiting lab confirmation “may slow (the legal process) down,” Arnold said, although charges could be filed on the likelihood a substance is heroin, and revised if it proves to be something else.

The prosecutor said such delays would certainly preferable to exposing officers to the dangers of direct contact.

“I did not field test the substance due to the dangers of heroin/carfentanil mix that investigators have come in contact with in previous cases,” one city narcotics unit officer wrote in an recent arrest affidavit.

“Due to recent local and regional cases of heroin being laced with fentanyl and carfentanil, the white powder was not tested on scene or at City Hall to avoid an accident overdose,” another city investigator wrote.

Delaware County Sheriff Ray Dudley said as a result of the increased danger, only trained Drug Task Force officers handle heroin seized in his department’s investigations.

“It’s pretty bad stuff,” Dudley said. “I just takes a little bit to get into your system and mess you up.”

Jason Rogers, the county’s executive director of emergency medical services and emergency management, noted many EMS workers are trained hazardous materials responders.

That being the case, paramedics and EMTs have access to a wide variety of protective gear – some not routinely associated with responding to controlled substance cases.

“We’re obviously putting an emphasis on personal protective equipment (in the wake of the increased heroin danger),” Rogers said. “We’re doing some specialty in-service training.”

Rogers said some safety procedures, such as those involving searching for syringes and paraphernalia in a patient’s pockets, have also been adjusted.

The emergency official said local evidence of the more potent heroin concoctions might be reflected in instances that have seen responders give victims multiple doses of Narcan, a medication used to treat heroin ODs, “with very little effect.”

I’m really surprised we haven’t had more deaths... because it is so deadly,” Rogers said.

Delaware County emergency medical personnel responded to 203 overdose calls, many involving heroin and related substances, between Jan. 1 and March 31.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. Follow him on Twitter: @DouglasWalkerSP.