Troy man falls victim to growing trend of prescription drug abuse

A 24-year-old Troy man who police say died Saturday after smoking a prescription pain medication that's almost 100 times as potent as morphine was the second serious prescription overdose incident in Troy in fewer than three months.

Elijah Rankin was found unconscious around 8:17 p.m. by his friend in a residence on Spokane Avenue, according to Troy police chief Mitch Walters, who suspects Rankin was trying to get high by smoking fentanyl, an addictive narcotic used by those who suffer from severe chronic pain.

Lincoln County Sheriff's deputy John Thrasher and Troy police officer Kit Pearson responded the report. Rankin was taken by ambulance to St. John's Lutheran Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

On July 27, Walters said a 13-year-old girl almost suffered the same fate after trying to smoke the same drug.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opiate and mimics the physiological actions of heroin, though it is considered even more addictive because its effects last a shorter amount of time. Thus, the abuser must continually consume larger and larger quantities of the drug to achieve a similar effect.

Fentanyl, which belongs to a class of drugs known to carry the highest potential for abuse, is commonly used to anesthetize patients in operating rooms and intensive care units.

Similar to heroin and other opioid drugs, it works by binding to the body's opiate receptors, which are highly concentrated in areas of the brain that control pain and emotion, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

When the drug binds to these receptors it can boost dopamine levels and produces a state of euphoria and relaxation.

Physicians administer fentanyl as an injection, a lozenge and a transdermal patch, or skin patch.

People suffering from moderate to severe chronic pain use the drug in a skin patch form.

It's this form that police suspect was involved in Rankin's death.

The fentanyl skin patch releases the drug into the body at a nearly constant amount per unit of time.

Walters said abusers will usually cut open the patch with a razor, scrape out the gelatinous fentanyl substance and wipe it on tinfoil. Then they fold the tinfoil "like a cup," stick a heat source on the bottom and suck in the smoke with a straw or tube.

Many abusers choose fentanyl for its euphoric and sedative effects. But few understand the strong possibility that they'll fall into a sedation of which they may never wake.

"Imagine getting hit with anesthesia without ventilatory support," said Montana's Chief Medical Examiner Gary Dale.

"You're anesthetized and you're not breathing."

Dale said the drug would stop the respiratory process as soon as it hit the brain.

"It's a very, very potent drug," Dale said.

A handful of people have died in Montana in the past several years after abusing the drug, which Dale said has even been swallowed.

"Basically, it's like playing Russian roulette," he said.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, illicit use of the drug first appeared within the medical community in the 1970s.

Since then, more than 12 different analogues have been identified in U.S. drug traffic.

"Meth is a problem here," Walters said from Troy Wednesday. "But my opinion would be that one of the biggest abuses is prescription meds."

In July, the 13-year-old Troy girl who overdosed apparently got the drug from her brother, who bought it from the grandmother, Dorothy M. Schopp, 66, of 809 E. Missoula Ave.

According to court records, Ms. Schopp admitted to police that she sold the fentanyl to her grandson.

Schopp was ticketed for distribution of dangerous drugs — a felony with a potential $50,000 fine and 20 years in jail — and endangering welfare of a child, which carries a $500 fine and six months in jail.