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MAN DIES AFTER INGESTING STRONG PAIN DRUG

By Chuck Bartels/Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, September 1, 2009 9:39 AM CDT

LITTLE ROCK — Little Rock police said Monday that a Southeast Arkansas man died and another man was hospitalized after they were found unconscious along a city street from an apparent overdose of a drug extracted from a prescription pain patch.

Charles Adam Jackson, 22, of White Hall, was pronounced dead Friday morning, shortly after he and Jake Forrest, 28, of Rector, were found unresponsive along Bowman Road south of 12th Street in west Little Rock.

Forrest had a prescription for the fentanyl patch, also known under brand names such as Duragesic. Forrest told investigators that he and Jackson removed the gel from the patch and ingested it.

“Bad situation,” Little Rock police spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings said. “Don’t do that.”

Hastings said autopsy results were pending on Jackson and charges have not been filed, though the investigation is continuing.

“This guy (Forrest) had a prescription; he did not have the patch illegally. Giving his friend some may be illegal,” Hastings said.

Hastings said Forrest told investigators that he took the fentanyl with the drug hydromorphone, also sold as Dilaudid.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse says fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine and poses a risk of killing people who abuse it. The institute said people who abuse fentanyl by mixing it with other drugs are at particular risk of overdose.

The Food and Drug Administration earlier issued a warning on the dangers of the drug. The synthetic opiate is often prescribed for cancer patients whose pain can’t be controlled by oxycodone or other powerful opiates.

Last year, one maker of the transdermal patches issued a recall because gel could leak from the patch, which could have led to a fatal overdose.

The FDA said some doctors have “inappropriately” prescribed the fentanyl patch for post-surgical pain, headaches, mild pain and other symptoms that don’t warrant use of the patch. The agency says patients who use more than one patch at a time, replace the patch more frequently than prescribed or apply heat to it risk fatally depressing their breathing.

Hastings said Little Rock police rarely see a fentanyl abuse case.

Forrest had been in stable condition at Baptist Hospital in Little Rock, police said. A hospital spokeswoman Monday said she could not provide information on Forrest.

Hastings said he did not know what health condition prompted the fentanyl prescription for Forrest.

Although a police report listed Jackson’s residence as White Hall, an obituary sent to The Commercial for someone with the same name, age and date of death show a Sheridan residence.

Jackson, called “Adam” by people who knew him, was born March 1, 1987, in Pine Bluff, according to the web site of Memorial Gardens Funeral Home of Sheridan.

Jackson was a member of North Main Baptist Church of Sheridan having been baptized at the age of 12. He graduated at the age of 17 from Arkansas National Guard Youth Challenge Program.

“He was a loving brother and son and was an avid hunter and fisherman,” the web site said.

Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Corinth Cemetery.

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