A female inmate at the Hiland Mountain Correctional Center was charged with one count of Distribution of a Controlled Substance in Federal Court on Tuesday after a rash of overdoses on the powerful narcotic Fentanyl in that facility in October. 

The first of five overdoses at the facility occurred the very same day that 36-year-old Dorothy Elizabeth Lantz was transferred to the Hiland Women’s Prison from the Anchorage Correctional Facility on October 30th. She had been picked up on a warrant for parole violation on October 24th.

The second and third inmates that overdosed, did so within moments of each other. One falling down and the other blacking out. The third inmate was hospitalized, treated, and returned to the prison the same day, only to overdose a second time.

The fourth inmate to overdose was found unresponsive, holding a condom with fentanyl in it, and eight methadone pills.

The victims were all revived with Narcan, Correction officials stated on November 1st.

When questioned, Lantz admitted to bringing the drug into the facility from the Anchorage facility in a body cavity and distributing it to inmates in return for “commissary.” She denied knowing where it came from and also told them that she had flushed what was left down the toilet.[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adsense-responsive”]The synthetic opioid, Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than heroin, and a mere three-milligram dose of the substance can be lethal. In comparison, Heroin is lethal at approximately 30-milligrams. Drug dealers mix Fentanyl with Heroin to increase potency but lack measuring equipment that is fine-tuned enough to ensure that the user does not overdose.

  charges, correctional, dorothy lantz, drugs, federal, fentanyl, heroin, hiland, inmate, october, overdoses, prison