Pubdate: Tue, 06 Jun 2006
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
Copyright: 2006 PG Publishing
Contact:  http://www.post-gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/341
Author:  Jonathan D. Silver, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)

LETHAL FORM OF HEROIN TAKES STEEP TOLL HERE

Three deaths, 35 overdoses are blamed on the lethal form of drug 
plaguing the city. And the mixture has caused at least 100 deaths 
from Philadelphia to Chicago

City police detectives were working overtime to scoop up drug dealers 
and lean on users for information as a lethal batch of heroin snaked 
its way through city neighborhoods and beyond, causing at least 35 
overdoses and as many as three deaths.

The heroin, which has cropped up in at least eight Pittsburgh 
neighborhoods since Saturday, is likely laced with the potent 
painkiller fentanyl, about 80 times stronger than morphine.

As authorities tried to make a dent locally in the heroin trade, the 
federal government announced yesterday that it had worked with Mexico 
to close a lab across the border that might be the source of the 
fentanyl that has killed heroin users in Pennsylvania and seven other states.

John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug 
Control Policy, said it was still not clear whether the fentanyl was 
mixed with heroin at the lab in Mexico or after it entered the United States.

Mr. Walters, speaking to reporters in Chicago yesterday, warned drug 
users that millions of deadly doses of fentanyl-laced heroin might 
still be on the streets. The mixture has caused at least 100 
confirmed deaths from Philadelphia to Chicago in recent months. 
Fentanyl might also be coming from other sources, he said.

"There may be more than one source," Mr. Walters said. "We think this 
is the principal source."

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is testing samples of 
fentanyl seized in a May 28 raid of a suspected fentanyl 
manufacturing operation near the western Mexico city of Guadalajara 
but does not yet have confirmation that the drug is linked to the 
U.S. deaths, DEA spokesman Steve Robertson said.

City police said they have arrested five people since the outbreak 
began Saturday, but they declined to release any details, saying that 
the investigation was ongoing.

Pittsburgh police Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki cautioned that even if 
officers bust the source of the bad heroin that has flooded 
Pittsburgh, it will take time for the batch on the streets to dwindle 
and finally disappear. It is not known how much of the heroin came 
into Pittsburgh or how it was divvied up among dealers.

"We're going to see it for a while until the supply is diminished," 
Cmdr. Stangrecki said yesterday during a news conference. "It's going 
to take more than one arrest to stop this."

Overdoses believed to be connected to the heroin, which has been 
found in small packets called stamp bags marked "Get High or Die 
Trying," have occurred in Beechview, Greenfield, Hazelwood, the Hill 
District, Lincoln Place, the North Side, the South Side and Squirrel Hill.

Other name brands are thought to be involved, but police have been 
unable to confirm that, Cmdr. Stangrecki said.

The heroin also has shown up in Bethel Park, Brentwood, Tarentum and 
West Mifflin. It sells for $10 to $15 a packet. Users range from 16 
to 56 years old, cross socioeconomic lines, and are white. Most are men.

West Mifflin Police Chief Joseph Popovich said his department's 
encounter with the drug happened Sunday around 4:15 p.m. A man in his 
30s who had taken heroin was found turning blue in a car parked on 
Lebanon Road near Miller Road.

The heroin came from Hazelwood, the man shot up in West Mifflin, and 
the case was turned over to Pittsburgh, Chief Popovich said.

Some arrests were made Friday involving the "Get High or Die Trying" 
stamp bags, but it was not until Saturday afternoon that Pittsburgh 
police first noticed something amiss when four overdoses were reported.

On Sunday, the number of incidents multiplied and included a 
fatality, Joseph Zielinski, 45, of Penn Hills, who was found in an 
apartment on Greenfield Avenue.

Yesterday, anyone listening to a police scanner would have heard 
numerous calls throughout the day for overdoses, including two 
fatalities in Hazelwood.

At 9:13 a.m., Lynn A. Margavo, 30, was found dead in her home in the 
5200 block of Gertrude Street. And at 10:11 a.m., Dorothy Iannone, 
56, of the 5100 block of Roma Way, was found dead. The cause and 
manner of both deaths were pending toxicology results.

A sampling of yesterday's overdoses followed the same pattern as 
Sunday's, with some cases involving motorists. Just after 10 a.m. 
yesterday, for instance, a man who had used the heroin lost 
consciousness and drove his Mercury Villager minivan over the curb 
and into a tree in the 100 block of Flowers Avenue in Hazelwood.

The driver, who was wearing his seat belt, was leaning back in his 
seat, unconscious. Firefighters from a nearby station house ran to 
the scene and began working to revive the man, who had a strong pulse 
but was having difficulty breathing, according to Capt. Greg Lowman.

The man regained consciousness in about five minutes, after 
firefighters and paramedics administered rescue breathing and a 
reversal agent, Capt. Lowman said.

"He claimed to be sleeping, but it was an obvious overdose," Capt. Lowman said.

About 3 p.m., the driver of a dump truck parked at a CoGo's in the 
2400 block of East Carson Street was found unconscious, slumped over 
the truck's steering wheel.

A store employee, who would not give her name, said paramedics pulled 
the man from the truck's cab and laid him on a stretcher while 
attempting to revive him. The man had a pulse but was struggling to 
breathe and appeared to be completely incoherent, with his arms 
flapping lifelessly at his sides, the employee said.

It could not be determined whether those incidents were linked to the 
potent heroin because police were unable to provide a breakdown of 
where and when the overdoses took place.

Late yesterday afternoon, Allegheny County's crime lab had analyzed 
one of three samples of heroin residue from stamp bags seized by 
police and determined that fentanyl was present.

Test results on the blood of the three people who died after 
apparently using the heroin would likely take until the end of the 
week, said Dr. Frederick Fochtman, director of the forensic science 
laboratory division and chief toxicologist of the county medical 
examiner's office.

"It's so very potent that it only takes a very small amount to have a 
toxic event," Dr. Fochtman said of fentanyl. "If somebody has this in 
a powdered form, how are they weighing it? How are they putting it in 
these packets? All you have to do is make a very little mistake and 
you have an overdose."

Authorities walk a thin line between the potential good of 
publicizing information about a heroin-fentanyl mixture and warning 
users of the danger, and tantalizing hard-core addicts who might seek 
out the bad dope for a powerful high.

"A hard-core addict, when they're using the heroin, sometimes they're 
only getting enough to prevent them from going into withdrawal," Dr. 
Fochtman said. "If they feel there is something out there they can 
take that will also make them high, they'll seek it out."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman