Pubdate: Sat, 08 Jul 2006 Source: Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, PA) Copyright: 2006 The Times Leader Contact: http://www.timesleader.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/933 Author: John Davidson Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) TAINTED HEROIN IS SUSPECTED IN DEATH OFFICIALS SAY Drug Use Wilkes-Barre Has Seen A Spike In Overdoses In Past Week, Including Five Friday "I've been here 12 years and I've never dealt with this many overdoses in one week." Sgt. Joe Novak WILKES-BARRE - A man who died of an apparent drug overdose Friday afternoon may have been using a tainted batch of heroin that's been blamed for more than 100 fatal overdoses nationwide in recent months, the county coroner said. A rash of drug overdoses broke out across the city this week, according to police and medics, who reported five overdoses on Friday alone, one of which was fatal. "I've been here 12 years and I've never dealt with this many overdoses in one week," said Wilkes-Barre police Sgt. Joe Novak. Police would not release the name of the man who died Friday, and neither would Luzerne County Coroner Dr. John Consalvo, pending notification of the family. Wilkes-Barre Fire Chief Jacob Lisman declined to give specific numbers, but he said the city has responded to an unusually high number of drug overdoses this week. One police officer said city medics have responded to approximately 15 overdoses in the past seven days. City police and medics responded to the Citizens Bank Parkade next to Boscov's Department Store at around 3 p.m. Friday for a report of two men overdosing on heroin, Novak said. A woman who was with the two men called 911, and when medics arrived one of the men was reacting badly, first struggling with medics and then falling in and out of consciousness, Novak said. Police were called in to assist and he was taken by ambulance to Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, where he later died. Consalvo said he thinks the man was using a form of heroin laced with fentanyl, a legal painkiller that some experts say is 80 times more potent than morphine and can be fatal in large doses. Fentanyl-laced heroin started turning up in major U.S. cities in April, and officials blamed the potent mix for dozens of deaths in Philadelphia, South Jersey and Delaware. Consalvo said he won't be certain the heroin used in Friday's deadly overdose was fentanyl-laced until he gets the results of a toxicology test, which could take several weeks. The toxicology test Consalvo ordered is quantitative, he said, which will reveal each different narcotic in the man's system at the time of his death, including the amount of fentanyl. The tests done Friday on overdose patients by area hospitals, on the other hand, do not show specific substances such as fentanyl. Consalvo added that the tests results will come too late to help inform anyone who chooses to shoot up in the coming weeks. "The word should be out there that anyone who is engaging in recreational drug use should be very careful." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman