Paul Bass Photos
Chief Campbell responding to one of the overdoses on the Green.
At least some of the K2 smokers who overdosed on the Green the past two days — who now number well into the 80s — received bags of a bad batch of the synethic drug from a dealer possibly looking to hook new customers.
So Police Chief Anthony Campbell reported at a City Hall press conference Thursday afternoon.
He and other top city officials spoke as across the street medics continued racing to revive or transport to the hospital victims of drug overdoses. Seventy-seven reported overdoses occurred on Wednesday. The number reached 19 around 1 p.m. Thursday as the Harp administration held the press conference to respond to what has become a national story about one city’s moment in the country’s drug public-health crisis. (Update: At 6 p.m. Fire Chief John Alston reported that crews had transported 27 people with overdose symptoms to the hospital on Thursday, 14 of them identified as having smoked K2.)
The police have arrested two men for allegedly distributing bags of K2 that led to the overdoses. Campbell said Thursday that the victims helped police identify the two men, whom cops have arrested before.
One of the men was selling the bags of K2 to people Wednesday, Campbell said. The other was giving out the samples for free. All of the bags came from the same tainted batch, he said.
“It is our belief that this individual may have had the intent of getting people addicted to this product and starting a chain” of clients with the free samples, Campbell said.
(Some accounts pegged the total of overdoses Wednesday at 76, not 77. Fire Chief John Alston confirmed Thursday that crews transported 72 overdose victims to the hospital that day, while another five refused treatment.)
No one has died from the overdoses. Most, though not all, of the overdoses have occurred on the Green.
“This is a nationwide problem,” Chief Alston said at the press conference. “It’s not going away.”
Many of the victims do not hail from New Haven, Campbell said. He noted that many of the drug users who congregate on or near the Green come to the city from all over the state, some for methadone treatment.
Rebuke To Fasano
Harp: Fasano should “get facts straight.”
At the press conference, Mayor Toni Harp struck back at Republican State Senate leader Len Fasano of North Haven for a statement issued earlier Thursday blaming New Haven for the drug activity on the Green.
Fasano issued a statement accusing the city of “allow[ing] one of its primary community centers, the New Haven Green, to deteriorate to the point where it is no longer an attraction for families or economic development, but a place of despair. The Green is just steps away from City Hall, and town officials know drug use on the Green was not limited to just what happened yesterday.”
Harp noted the state cut New Haven’s annual municipal aid this year. She noted that the state doesn’t allow the city to collect property taxes on 54 percent of its property, which is owned by not-for-profit organizations.
“We are the only city in Connecticut that got a $9.4 million hit from the state legislature. I am really appalled that someone who contributed to our city’s lack of resources would say that is our fault,” Harp said.
“We have been working on that Green for the past four years to deal with the problems that are there. I think he needs to get his facts straight.”
Another Republican legislative leader, State Rep. Themis Klarides, issued a statement calling for stricter penalties for fentanyl-related arrests because of what happened in New Haven Wednesday. On Thursday, officials said there’s no evidence that fentanyl played a role in the majority of overdoses; victims did not fully lose consciousness. Dr. Sandy Bogucki said that fentanyl users who overdose often lose consciousness and need Narcan to be revived; in almost all the cases so far, medics did not administer Narcan because it is primarily an opiate reversal agent.
This has nothing to do with New Haven taking a $9.4 million hit from the state legislature. If the city had gotten the money she would have blown it on something stupid anyway. The people abusing drugs on the New Haven green did not learn anything yesterday and are repeating their stupid behavior today. There has to be a way to identify the abusers, cite them for violating the law, ban them from the green if they are repeat offenders and arrest them for trespassing every time they set foot back on the green. These people are not going to go away anytime soon. We are spending a ton of money due to their stupidity and it has to stop. Stupidity can not be cured, but it can be incarcerated and/or punished by keeping them from the green. These people could just have easily been dead from the overdoses. They have proven they will ingest, inhale or inject unknown chemicals bought from multiple unregulated sources. The next rash of overdoses could easily be fatal to a lot of people. It is time for action.