Pubdate: Wed, 24 May 2006
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2006 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: David Heinzmann and Jeff Coen, Tribune staff reporters
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

HEROIN DEATH DRUG PROBED

U.S. INVESTIGATING NATIONAL PROBLEM

As Chicago police continue investigating heroin dealers lacing their 
drugs with the deadly painkiller Fentanyl, federal officials are 
trying to determine whether the outbreak of the drug is part of an 
emerging national problem.

Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent two 
investigators to Detroit at the request of Michigan health officials 
to look into the more than 100 Fentanyl-related deaths there since 
last fall, said CDC spokeswoman Bernadette Burden. It is the first 
time the CDC has been called to investigate Fentanyl use, Burden said.

"This is new territory," she said.

In addition to Chicago and Detroit, New Jersey and Philadelphia also 
have had a series of fatal overdoses in recent weeks. The U.S. Drug 
Enforcement Administration has begun testing samples in controlled 
purchases from targeted areas here and in other hot spots to 
determine if they can be linked to a common source, officials said.

"Samples are being tested to see if we can determine if it's 
pharmaceutical grade or from a clandestine laboratory," said Special 
Agent Christopher Hoyt of the DEA in Chicago.

"Whenever we're coming across it, it's being tested."

Fentanyl is a prescription drug often used in anesthesia and pain management.

Investigators say the drug, which can be 100 times stronger than 
heroin, probably comes from multiple sources.

Some of the drug that ends up peddled on the street is stolen from 
pharmaceutical supply chains. Police are still investigating a May 1 
theft of Fentanyl from Resurrection Hospital on the Northwest Side.

But much of the drug is believed to come from illegal labs operated 
by traffickers.

"We know it comes up from the Mexican border," said Frank Limon, 
chief of the department's organized crime division. But "it's kind of 
mixed. We've got the lab-based stuff, and we have the legitimate 
stuff that is prescribed for someone and is sitting in a cabinet 
somewhere" when it is stolen.

Two weeks ago Chicago police raided a house on the West Side looking 
for Fentanyl after several people overdosed in the area earlier in the day.

A gun and ammunition were recovered at the house in the 1000 block of 
North Iowa Street, but the real target of the raid--Sidney Peterson 
and a stash of Fentanyl-laced heroin--were not there, police and 
prosecutors said.

Peterson was arrested with the tainted heroin three days later, 
however, when officers spotted him driving nearby, prosecutors said.

The bust was part of a broad investigation that has included several 
arrests and seizures since the latest outbreak in Chicago last month.

"We're trying to leverage anybody in custody" to give up information 
about the Fentanyl supply, Limon said.

Since April 2005 there have been 42 Fentanyl-related fatal overdoses 
in Cook County, with 30 in Chicago, police said.

The largest outbreak this year occurred between April 13 and April 
19, mostly on the South Side. Police have submitted 43 samples of 
heroin for forensic testing from that investigation, and so far, four 
samples tested positive for Fentanyl, Limon said. He said 19 samples 
are still being evaluated.

The problem in Chicago is cyclical, said Hoyt. Investigators believe 
that drug dealers occasionally introduce the drug into their heroin 
supply in order to spark new demand among heavy drug users looking 
for more potent heroin, police said.

"The only problem is it's killing more of their customers," Hoyt said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman