Arrest of the Guy Who Sold Fentanyl as Cocaine to West Point Cadets Who OD’d

A lethal dose of heroin beside a lethal dose of fentanyl. A lethal dose of cocaine would probably be six of those jars, full (unless it was really pure straight from Columbia, then maybe two jars). But a cocaine overdose is almost impossible, because you’ll vomit first. Even in the 1980s, you weren’t hearing about people overdosing on cocaine.

I wouldn’t say I was a total degenerate in my teenage years, but I did grow up in a state that would soon become the opioid overdose capital of the world. So there was no way to make it through high school as a “cool kid” without a certain amount of exposure to drugs.

Regardless, I can tell you this: you don’t really have to have had much experience with drugs to know the difference between cocaine and opioids. They are literally the opposite of each other. Cocaine is a kind of speed, whereas opioids are downers.

Cocaine is in the same class of drug as Novocain, which is (or was) used to numb the mouth during dental operations. Typically, anyone buying cocaine is going to ask first for a “numbie,” which is where you take a small amount and rub it on your gums. The amount of numbness it creates in your gums reveals its purity.

Also, just for context here – cocaine is considered a serious drug by the law because black people make it into crack. It was legal for decades and you could buy it in a grocery store. Coca-Cola is literally called “Coca-Cola” because it was cola that contained cocaine. Anyway, doing a little bit of cocaine is like smoking a little bit of pot, in terms of the seriousness of it. Pot is arguably much worse, because it is more likely to be addictive as well as more likely to impair motor function. So, cocaine is something that a lot of normal teenagers and young people do at parties, whereas fentanyl is a hardcore drug that is only used by hardcore junkies.

Unless of course, someone were to be so kooky as to sell a fentanyl mix as cocaine.

But who would do something like that?

Ah.

New York Post:

Florida cops have arrested an alleged drug dealer they say sold the fentanyl-laced cocaine to several West Point cadets who overdosed during a spring break trip this week.

Axel Giovany Casseus, 21, was jailed Saturday in lieu of $50,000 bail, Local10 News reported.

After identifying Casseus, an undercover police officer was successfully able to purchase 43 grams of cocaine from him for $1,000, according to an arrest report, the network reported.

While in custody, Casseus admitted to selling drugs to the West Point cadets and his phone contained correspondence with them, authorities said.

“Four cadets were taken to hospital. Of the six people involved, one person was not taken to hospital, and one was not a cadet. Five USMA cadets in total were involved. Two of the cadets remain hospitalized,” a West Point spokesman told The Post Saturday.

So yeah, I guess this is now a thing.

People have been OD’ing on pills that were sold as ecstasy and actually just fentanyl for a while now. But to pass fentanyl as cocaine is really wild.

There are multiple stories of this happening in Florida.

The issue with fentanyl is this: it is too easy to make, and the doses too small, to ever have it be particularly expensive. Basically, it’s so cheap that if you shipped 100 containers in the mail, and 99 of them got found by the authorities, you’d still be making a profit. And it’s so small that you can hide it in anything in the mail, and it doesn’t have an odor that dogs can sniff out.

So, you need a solution other than trying to stop the flow, as most conservatives always say. Basically, you need really, really serious prison time for dealing, and 6-12 months in jail for first time possession.

You could also just promote a culture where people don’t feel such a strong desire to get high. Although you’d probably still have college kids wanting to do cocaine.