Pubdate: Sat, 01 Feb 2014
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2014 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Authors: Matt Zapotosky and Justin Jouvenal
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?132 (Heroin Overdose)

VA. GIRL'S HEROIN OVERDOSE SHOWS 'DISTURBING' TREND

The teen had never injected heroin before, authorities say, and on 
that hot summer night, she could not find a vein. An acquaintance put 
the needle in Emylee Lonczak's arm for her.

As she and others drove back to Northern Virginia from the District, 
the 16-year-old passed out, court papers say. Someone suggested 
dumping her in the city, but the other two people in the car said no, 
the papers say. They finally settled on carrying her into the 
basement of one of their homes, laying her on a bed.

One friend, who now faces federal criminal charges, later told 
investigators that he was with the McLean High School student when 
she died, court papers say. Fearing he would get in trouble, he said, 
he dragged her body outside and left it near some shrubs. He covered 
it with a screen window.

About two days later, police found Lonczak's body. The medical 
examiner determined that the heroin - combined with a common 
antihistamine - caused her death.

The incident epitomizes what officials say is a frightening trend. 
Authorities say more and more people are using heroin, a narcotic 
with a power they do not fully understand. They use too much - mix it 
with other drugs - and overdose. Their families are left to ponder 
what could have been done, as law enforcement officials decide who 
should be held responsible.

"It's a growing problem, and I think that law enforcement recognizes 
it as a growing problem," said Acting U.S. Attorney Dana Boente, 
whose office in the Eastern District of Virginia has prosecuted 
several heroin cases in which users have overdosed. "And it is disturbing."

The drug seems to be permeating many places across the country. In a 
news release announcing a bust in New York on Friday, James J. Hunt, 
acting special agent in charge with the Drug Enforcement 
Administration, said heroin was "pummeling the northeast, leaving 
addiction, overdoses and fear in its wake." In Vermont, the governor 
devoted much of his State of the State address to discussing heroin 
and opiate addiction.

And locally, health officials in Maryland warned Friday that heroin 
tainted with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is believed to be 
responsible for at least 37 deaths from September to now.

The increase in heroin-related overdose deaths is difficult to 
quantify, because toxicology reports are typically completed months 
after someone dies.

In Maryland, state health officials said the number of such deaths 
increased from 245 in 2011 to 378 in 2012. In Virginia, officials 
said they recorded 91 accidental heroin deaths in the first nine 
months of 2012, up from 90 for all of 2011 and 70 for 2010. D.C. 
officials said their statistics are current only through 2011.

The impact is felt most acutely by the friends and families of those 
who use the drug. Dan Dooley, who coached Lonczak in McLean youth 
soccer, said he remembered the teen as a quiet, respectful girl who 
"was shy and almost timid, but she was always trying to get in the game."

"The only thing I can think is this was a hiccup," Dooley said. "It's 
almost like if she could have avoided it, she would have gone on to a 
productive life."

Officials say they are trying to cut the supply of heroin by taking 
dealers off the streets and temper the demand by explaining how 
potent and unpredictable the drug is. Many users, they say, are 
people who became dependent on prescription pain pills but can no 
longer get them because doctors and pharmacies have reformed how they 
are doled out.

But heroin, officials say, is a dangerous substitute. Its dosage, 
they say, is not controlled by the pill, and its purity can vary wildly.

"If you go to heroin, you don't know who you're getting it from, what 
it's cut with, what quantity can I handle," said Capt. Nancy Demme of 
Montgomery County police's Special Investigations Division. "The 
results are that you have these overdoses and, in some cases, you have deaths."

According to a federal affidavit in Lonczak's death, the teen was 
part of a group of four who set out from Virginia on Aug. 21 to buy 
heroin from a dealer in Washington. On the ride back - after someone 
else injected her - Lonczak fell unconscious, according to the affidavit.

A 20-year-old Virginia man in the vehicle, Kyle Alifom, suggested 
that the group dump her in Washington, according to the affidavit. 
The others said no, the affidavit says. Eventually, Alifom and one 
other person in the group took Lonczak to Alifom's house in Vienna, 
according to the affidavit. It says the two took her inside and put 
her on a bed in the basement.

But after the other person left, Alifom - who was not the one to 
inject Lonczak - dragged Lonczak's body to an area filled with shrubs 
and put a screen window over it, according to the affidavit. He told 
a detective he believed Lonczak had "died in his presence," and he 
was concerned about getting in trouble because he was on probation 
for other offenses, according to the affidavit. Court records show 
his probation stemmed from a trespassing charge.

Police found Lonczak's body about two days later. Months later, 
Alifom was charged in federal court in Alexandria with knowing that 
heroin was distributed resulting in a death and assisting the 
offender to hinder his apprehension, trial and punishment. His 
defense attorney wrote in court papers that Alifom is accused of 
being an "accessory after the fact," noting that Alifom did not sell 
or give Lonczak any drugs.

The defense attorney, Kevin Brehm, said Friday that Alifom, who is 
being held without bond, did not suggest dumping Lonczak's body in 
Washington during the ride to Virginia. He said his client has 
cooperated with investigators and was in a residential drug treatment 
program when he was arrested.

Court papers say Alifom was "struggling" with the rules at the 
treatment facility - in part because of attention deficit 
hyperactivity disorder and in part because of Lonczak's death. The 
papers suggest Alifom had a long struggle with drug abuse, having 
completed a drug treatment program at a private boarding school in 
North Carolina when he was 16 years old.

Officials say that although they are particularly disturbed by the 
increase in young users of heroin, those who have died after taking 
the drug come from all walks of life.

In another recent case in federal court in Alexandria, a longtime 
D.C. heroin dealer who went by the nickname "Shine" admitted his 
heroin was linked in some way to three separate deaths. One victim 
was a 23-year-old Army private stationed at Fort Belvoir, another was 
a 22-year-old Fairfax County woman and the third was a 33-year-old 
Fairfax County man.

Demme, the Montgomery County police captain, said that the drug has 
moved to the "forefront" of police's radar. She said police are 
trying desperately to convey the message that heroin can be deadly.

"You don't know what you're getting," she said. "You don't know what 
you're putting into your body."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom