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SALEM -- Meth, meth and more meth -- that's the drug Salem officers see the most, but Chief J.T. Panezott said some drugs may contain more than users realize.
"Fentanyl is showing up in every drug we see on the street," he said during a recent interview.
On the Drug Enforcement Administration website, fentanyl is defined as a synthetic opioid that's 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine and is sometimes "added to heroin to increase its potency, or be disguised as highly potent heroin."
For some users, the combination of fentanyl with their drug of choice, sometimes without their knowledge, may be deadly, according to Panezott.
He told of one instance when people who were longtime cocaine users overdosed, resulting in one death. The cocaine contained fentanyl.
He also said they're dealing with bootleg pharmaceuticals, such as pills made to look like Percocet that often contain fentanyl. He said one in five of the pills on the street are counterfeit and contain fentanyl and he knows the Columbiana County Drug Task Force has found pills containing more than one drug. He knew of one pill that contained methamphetamine (meth), Xanax, cocaine and fentanyl.
"It's very scary, especially for the kids out there. The fact that you're taking what you think is a prescription pill could result in your death," Panezott said.
The Salem Police Department has a detective assigned full-time to the county DTF. In 2021, he helped conduct 15 search warrants of residences in the city, 12 consent searches of homes, three vehicle search warrants and two item search warrants.
The department now has the ability to do its own cell phone analysis through a software program that can extract data from electronic devices, such as cell phones or laptop computers. Previously the department had to send electronic devices to a lab. In 2021, the department wrote 18 search warrants for cell phones, laptops or other electronics and conducted seven consent searches of cell phones.
Six people were indicted by the county grand jury on 11 drug counts through the agent's work.
"He's had a very successful year and we're very appreciative of the hard work the DTF has done," Panezott said.
Salem also has a sergeant assigned full-time to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
While the police department's 2021 statistics show drug calls and drug citations are down, Panezott said the numbers are misleading because many of the cases are felonies which go through the grand jury. Those numbers aren't reflected in the report.
mgreier@salemnews.nets