\n<\/aside>\n\u201cI said, we need to test this and find out what\u2019s going on with it,\u201d Cook County Sheriff\u2019s Office Chief of Staff Brad Curry recalled about that moment, referring to the paper shreds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eventually, a Virginia lab would confirm that the strips were soaked in a synthetic cannabinoid called Pinaca, which proved lethal when Diskin smoked the paper.<\/p>\n
Before authorities could stop it, other inmates were dropping dead under eerily similar circumstances.\u00a0<\/p>\nJail officials tried to warn prisoners about the dangers of the toxic laced paper by posting these signs throughout the facility. courtesy of Cook County Sheriff’s Office<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nLess than two weeks after the first death, a 23-year-old was found dead, and less than a month after that, a 35-year-old inmate died.<\/p>\n
By year\u2019s end, six prisoners fatally overdosed after smoking tiny strips of paper that had been soaked in synthetic drugs \u2014 often using a \u201cwick,\u201d or slow-burning string of toilet paper or fabric.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t know what was on [the paper in Diskin\u2019s cell], but we knew it was a drug,\u201d Curry told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it was a race against time \u2026 we had a new drug that is very, very toxic and very, very deadly, that Narcan apparently didn\u2019t work on,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\nVideo showing a suspected non-fatal overdose in CCCF in 2023. Courtesy of Cook County Sheriff’s Office<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThey tried to warn prisoners about the dangers \u2014 throwing up signs in every ward of the approximately 6,000-inmate facility, warning against \u201cdrugs smuggled into the jail, like soaked paper.\u201d<\/p>\n
The message was stark: \u201cDo not take drugs in the jail if you want to live.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guards also began inspecting every single piece of mail that came into the lockup, looking for stains and discoloration that could indicate synthetic drugs on it, and ramped up random cell searches and surveillance.\u00a0<\/p>\nSeveral prisoners fatally overdosed by smoking the laced paper, often using a self-made wick, which inmates are seen lighting in a microwave. Courtesy of Cook County Sheriff’s Office<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut the strips of drug-soaked paper were sometimes so tiny, guards wouldn\u2019t find them \u2014 and not even drug-trained police K-9s were able to sniff out the new synthetic cannabinoid they contained, Curry explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While officials did everything short of banning paper \u2014 which \u201cis necessary for everybody\u2019s job function here, and for inmates to communicate with their family and friends,\u201d Curry said \u2014 to curtail the trend, smugglers grew more advanced.<\/p>\n
\u2018Doing it for the money\u2019<\/h2>\n When the mailroom got too hot with scrutiny, smugglers began dousing legal documents in drugs to make it look like it came straight from the courthouse. <\/p>\n
They even put it on pages of thick books that came to the prison packaged as if they\u2019d been sent straight from Amazon or a local bookstore.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just one, 12\u00d712 piece of paper full of the drugs could run up to $10,000 \u2014 a price tag apparently high enough to turn the heads of several money-hungry staffers \u2014 who ended up in cuffs for smuggling it to inmates, according to Curry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re a dirty officer, [inmates working as dealers] will give them a certain amount of that every time they bring in a sheet of paper \u2026 so they\u2019re doing it for the money. It\u2019s so lucrative,\u201d Curry said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In-person visitors are another avenue to get the goods inside prison walls. Surveillance footage shared with The Post from one May 2024 visit shows a female guest take a tiny, white slip of sullied paper and suddenly launch it across the table, with the inmate catching it across the table and slyly moving it into his uniform pocket.\u00a0<\/p>\nA Cooks County Sheriff\u2019s Office investigator tests a book for the deadly drug. Courtesy of Cook County Sheriff’s Office<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBetween smugglers and inmates found possessing the drug-dunked paper, Cook County law enforcement has made a combined 130 felony arrests since 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A sophisticated, paper-testing machine \u2014 which blinks red if paper has anything other than ink on it, and can test hundreds of sheets at one time \u2014 has also assisted in their efforts against the epidemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Prison deaths from smoking drug-soaked paper fell to just one in 2024. However, one death in 2025 and two already in 2026 are being eyed as drug-doused paper deaths, according to the sheriff\u2019s office, which said it\u2019s awaiting official results from the Cook County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And throughout the years, the synthetic cannabinoids used in the recipes have changed \u2014 and gotten stronger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the type of drug that they\u2019re using now, the potency of that drug, will probably be a contributing factor to why we see a [bigger] rise this year [in deaths] than what we\u2019ve seen the last two years,\u201d Curry explained.<\/p>\n
Although the epidemic has since hit other prisons throughout the country, Curry said, he and his sheriff\u2019s office cohorts fear for what would happen if the drug-doused paper hit the outside world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re a police officer and you pull somebody over \u2026 and there\u2019s a stack of paper in an open Office Depot wrapper, you have no idea that that\u2019s $1 million worth of drugs right there, and your dogs are not going to hit on it. Nobody\u2019s going to know that \u2026 until we educate all our police officers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the ramifications, if this does go to the street, are huge. This would be the biggest war on drugs you\u2019ve ever seen in your life \u2026 you\u2019d have a lot of new drug dealers that are millionaires, because nobody would catch onto it probably for a long time,\u201d he warned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd how do you keep it out of schools, because it\u2019s on pieces of paper? It\u2019s terrifying. It would be worse than the fentanyl in the street,\u201d Curry said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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