“Rainbow fentanyl” has turned up on the Big Island, less than a week after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency warned of the new take on the deadly drug sweeping the mainland.
In a Tuesday memo obtained by West Hawaii Today, EMS Battalion Chief Chris Honda informed personnel that the Hawaii High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program had issued a bulletin warning of the distribution and sale of “rainbow fentanyl” as well as fentanyl laced with xylazine in the state.
Honda added the Hawaii Police Department had seized the new take on fentanyl in the form fake oxycodone pills in recent days in Hawaii County.
“We are told that this substance is also found in powder and chalk type block forms on the street,” Honda said in the memo with the subject line: “HIDTA BULLETIN — COLORED FENTANYL.”
The EMS leader also advised personnel to wear all proper protective equipment when responding to possible overdose cases, and to ensure that ambulances are stocked with devices for airway support that are “crucial” in such responses.
The news of the arrival of rainbow fentanyl on Hawaii Island follows an Aug. 30 warning from the Drug Enforcement Agency about the new take on the deadly drug sweeping the mainland.
“Rainbow fentanyl — fentanyl pills and powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes, and sizes — is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram in a press release. “The men and women of the DEA are relentlessly working to stop the trafficking of rainbow fentanyl and defeat the Mexican drug cartels that are responsible for the vast majority of the fentanyl that is being trafficked in the United States.”
The following day, Aug. 31, members of the Hawaii Island Fentanyl Task Force and law enforcement said they had yet to encounter the brightly colored pills and powder on the island. That was short-lived, however.
Hawaii Police Department Area II Vice Lt. Edwin Buyten on Wednesday said his unit began seeing the rainbow-colored pills within the last month in West Hawaii.
“In ongoing investigations we have recovered a decent amount of presumed rainbow fentanyl pills and a little bit of powder,” said Buyten. “We have to be on target at the right time to get that bust, but Kona is doing it.”
Fentanyl — whether brightly colored or simply white — is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Just 2 milligrams of fentanyl, which is equal to 10-15 grains of table salt, is considered a lethal dose.
The CDC reported 107,622 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021, with 66% of those deaths related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl. On Hawaii Island, according to task force member Dr. Kevin Kunz, CDC data shows one person dying every 11 days of opioid overdose. In November, a 14-year-old West Hawaii girl died of fentanyl overdose; prosecutors are currently reviewing the case for charges.
Prior to 2020, annual statewide seizures of illicit fentanyl were less than 1 pound, but from 2020 to 2021, roughly 52 pounds of fentanyl were confiscated throughout the state, more than 30 of which came from the Big Island.
During the 12-month period ending Aug. 31, Hawaii Island police confiscated about 5.2 pounds of powdered fentanyl and 2,493 fentanyl pills in Area II, which encompasses Ka‘u, Kona, North and South Kohala. That amount of powdered fentanyl alone could kill the population of the Big Island 5.8 times over with 2 milligrams of the synthetic opioid being lethal.
Buyten credits the ability to work together with local, state and federal agencies to get the lethal drugs off the streets of West Hawaii, but stresses community involvement.
“This is our community. Village rules apply. That’s the beauty of Hawaii. I was born and raised here and everybody took care of everybody else. We need to educate our children and our elderly to look out for this. Talk to the kids to warn them that these drugs kill,” he said.
Buyten suggested parents do online research, including visiting the DEA website for a parent’s guide to prevention. Tips can also be called in anonymously to the department’s 24-hour drug tip hotline at (808) 329-“ZERO-ICE,” or (808) 329-0423, in West Hawaii and (808) 934-“VICE,” or (808) 934-8423, in East Hawaii.
Dr. Kimo Alameda, Hawaii Island Fentanyl Task Force leader, also stressed education as prevention.
“Today, I presented to the St Joseph student body about the dangers of this drug and all gateway drugs since fentanyl can be laced in almost any drug. The kids were very responsive. We got our police department and federal agencies trying to decrease the supply but it’s up to us, the community to help decrease the demand through prevention and education,” Alameda said Wednesday.
The Department of Education did not respond to a request on what educational efforts are being made at the public school-level as of press time Wednesday.
The Hawaii High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program bulletin also warned that agencies have seen the first examples of fentanyl pills mixed with xylazine, an addition apparently used to prolong the effects of fentanyl.
Xylazine is an animal sedative with muscle relaxant and analgesic properties, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is not approved for use in humans because it acts as a nervous system depressant and can cause respiratory depression, slowed heart rate, and hypotension.
The veterinary drug’s combination with illicitly produced opioids like fentanyl and heroin can increase the risk of a fatal overdose because of increased sedation and respiratory depression.
In addition, because xylazine is not an opioid, it does not respond to opioid reversal agents such as naloxone or Narcan, medications used to reverse opioid overdose.