Finding a way to stop fentanyl: Shelter Island State rep wants new laws on drug

Shelter Island’s representative in the New York State Senate, Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R,C-New Suffolk), has joined others to sponsor legislation they believe will be another tool for law enforcement to use to combat the widespread use of fentanyl.

A highly potent — and highly addictive — synthetic opioid, fentanyl has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to be used for pain relief and as an anesthetic. Its illegal use can come in many forms, especially laced within other drugs, concocting a dangerous narcotic cocktail that often leads to overdoses and deaths.

Sen. Palumbo has sponsored “Chelsey’s Law” in the State Senate, which increases penalties to manslaughter or aggravated manslaughter, the law reads, “ … when an individual knows or has reasonable grounds to know that a controlled substance is likely to cause the death of another person and sells, administers, delivers, or causes the delivery of a controlled substance to another person and such substance causes, contributes to, or aids in the death of such person.”

Sen. Palumbo recently said, “The fentanyl epidemic has impacted every corner of our state and every segment of society. It doesn’t discriminate. It has taken both young and old, rich and poor. Time is a luxury we don’t have when addressing this issue. I urge my fellow colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come together and provide the men and women on the front lines with the tools and resources they need to combat this crisis.”

Chelsey’s Law is named for Chelsey Murray, a 31-year-old Suffolk County resident who fatally overdosed in August 2022 from fentanyl poisoning that was traced back to her supplier.

In addition to Chelsey’s Law, another bill has been sponsored by Sen. Palumbo designating Xylazine — a powerful drug known by its street name “Tranq” and used in some circumstances as an animal tranquilizer — as a controlled substance.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, more than 110,000 lives were lost to overdoses in 2022, and the DEA reported that 7 out of every 10 pills illegally sold in America contain fentanyl, with most users unaware that fentanyl is part of the deal.

“Fentanyl is the single deadliest drug threat our nation has ever encountered,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. “Fentanyl is everywhere. From large metropolitan areas to rural America, no community is safe from this poison.”

As of September of last year, Shelter Island has had 42 cases of overdoses from drugs since 2015, with six fatalities, according to the Shelter Island Police Department. In 2023 alone, there were six reported overdoses and no deaths. Narcan, administered by Shelter Island Emergency Medical Services teams, is primarily responsible for saving those lives.

In the summer of 2021, five North Fork residents and one Islander, Swainson Brown, suffered fatal overdoses from cocaine laced with fentanyl over the course of  three devastating days in August.

Late last year, seven East End residents were among 30 people indicted in a series of sweeping narcotics investigations that stretched from one end of Suffolk County to the other. The investigations uncovered what law enforcement officials described as three distinct drug operations led by a trio of alleged gang members peddling cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and cocaine laced with fentanyl countywide.

One of the three alleged leaders, Paris Parks, is a Greenport resident who authorities say is a Bloods gang member who sold felony weight amounts of cocaine, heroin and fentanyl to undercover police officers in deals ranging from $3,500 to $10,000 per transaction, from February 2022 to July 2023.