A New Kensington man who died after leading police on a brief chase early Sunday morning apparently choked to death in his vehicle. Allegheny County police said Curtis D. Patterson, 40, was found in his vehicle about 2 a.m. Sunday. Patterson, who fled police about an hour earlier, tried to make a high-speed turn from Freeport Road in East Deer onto the Ninth Street Bridge, but his car struck one of the concrete approaches to the bridge, according to Tarentum police Chief Bill Vakulick. [continues 159 words]
The best police officer in the state at helping children steer clear of drugs and alcohol works right here. Lower Burrell Patrolman John Marhefka has been named the Drug Awareness and Resistance Education Officer of the Year. Marhefka is in his 12th year of teaching drug and alcohol awareness classes. The Vandergrift native is the 21st officer of the year selected by the state's DARE officer's association. "This is someone who obviously likes his work," said Lower Burrell Police Chief Tracy Lindo, himself a longtime DARE instructor. "He has a confidence level and gets along with the students. You can't fool the kids." [continues 445 words]
Thomas Schaefers seemed an unlikely drug kingpin. At 48, the corporate chemist never had a traffic ticket nor problems with police, never had moved out of his parents' Aspinwall home and seldom left the house. So his elderly mother was shocked when federal drug agents raided their home in December 1988, charging her son in what remains the Allegheny County's biggest epidemic of opiate deaths. At least 20 people died after using 3-methyl-fentanyl, commonly known as China White, some of whom thought they were injecting heroin. [continues 969 words]
There may have been even more heroin overdoses in the Pittsburgh area than estimated at first, according to Dr. Fred Harchelroad, chairman of the emergency medical department at Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh. Harchelroad on Tuesday said the number of deaths would be reduced because paramedics use Narcan, also known by the generic name naloxone, to routinely help revive those who overdose on heroin and other opiates before they are taken to emergency rooms. Emergency room doctors also use the medicine so much that they may not have started to order certain toxicology screenings until the fentanyl-heroin mix gained public attention, he said. [continues 453 words]
WASHINGTON: Twelve heroin deaths have been reported in Westmoreland County since Jan. 1, Westmoreland County Detective Tony Marcocci told a U.S. House committee Thursday. He answered questions from an oversight committee that wants more federal emphasis placed on Colombian heroin. Westmoreland's dozen might soon become 13 if the toxicology report on another case comes back with proof, Westmoreland County Coroner Ken Bacha said. The 12 are ages 19 to 46. Ten are men, two are women and all are white. [continues 380 words]
WASHINGTON -- A Congressional panel is asking why the U.S. government switched the focus of its successful anti-heroin program in Colombia to attack cocaine production and if the change in 2000 led to increased addiction and death in the United States since then. "We have seen an unprecedented rise" in heroin use, Westmoreland County Detective Tony Marcocci told the House Government Reform Committee on Thursday. Marcocci held stamped bags marked "Lightning," "Twelve Monkey" and "Mombo King." Each bag held 0.01 to 0.03 grams of Colombian heroin. [continues 1173 words]
Greensburg, Westmoreland County Detective Tony Marcocci has been asked to tell a U.S. House committee about the impact of heroin. Marcocci was asked to testify Thursday because of his familiarity with the drug and the problems it creates, said House Government Reform Committee spokesman Blaine Rettmaier. The hearing is titled "America's Heroin Crisis, Colombian Heroin and How we Can Improve Plan Colombia." Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Asa Hutchinson and White House Office of Drug Policy Director John Walters also have been asked to testify. Last fall Walters and U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, R-McCandless, warned Highlands High School students about heroin and other drugs. [continues 406 words]
HARRISON: The nation's youth can play an important role in fighting illegal drugs even as the nation spends billions of tax dollars in the effort, the nation's chief anti-drug officer told Highlands High School students Wednesday. "You want to be treated as adults. This is a way to show responsibility," said John Walters, who directs the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "At a party, step up. Tell friends or siblings not to use drugs. And if they are using them, tell them they need help and offer to help them get that help," he said. [continues 739 words]
HARRISON: John P. Walters insists that legalizing drugs raises more questions than it answers. On Wednesday the nation's drug czar will tell Highlands High School students why they should shun illegal drugs. Walters and U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods, will address an assembly of grades 9-12 students in a presentation not open to the public. Later a roundtable discussion will be held with parents, school officials and law-enforcement officers. Heroin has killed three Highlands students from the Class of 2001. Two of the victim's mothers will participate in the event, a Hart spokesman said. [continues 228 words]
JOHNSTOWN: Deadly Colombian heroin is replacing cocaine as the state's most serious drug threat, federal and local authorities confirm. The change will be published this fall in an annual state drug assessment by the National Drug Intelligence Center, NDIC staff told The Valley News Dispatch. The NDIC uses reports from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, military and local police to compile state-by- state drug assessments for a counterdrug intelligence plan. While powder and crack cocaine, Ecstasy and club drugs, marijuana and OxyContin misuse remain problems in the Pittsburgh area, Colombian heroin is the state's most serious drug threat, NDIC spokeswoman Lynn Hollinger said. [continues 1103 words]
Heroin Becomes No. 1 Drug Threat Deadly Colombian heroin is replacing cocaine as the state's most serious drug threat, federal and local authorities confirm. The change will be published this fall in an annual state drug assessment by the National Drug Intelligence Center, NDIC staff said. The Johnstown and McLean, Va.-based NDIC uses reports from the DEA, FBI, CIA, military and local police to do state by state drug assessments for a counterdrug intelligence plan. While abuse of powder and crack cocaine, Ecstasy and club drugs, marijuana and OxyContin remain problems in the Pittsburgh area, Colombian heroin is the state's most serious drug threat, NDIC spokeswoman Lynn S. Hollinger said. [continues 438 words]
Capt. Jack Plaisted of the Butler police was surprised when a pistol reported stolen in the city turned up less than two months later in an attempted homicide in Austin, Texas. "Then I learned that drugs were involved," he said. For police, it was just another case of the long reach now seen in the drug and gun trade. Increasingly, investigators say, the so-called "local drug dealer" is becoming a thing of the past. In the Valley and surrounding region, even street-level dealers travel widely. From the inner city to rural country roads and across state lines - even across the country - drug dealers are expanding their territories and client bases. [continues 1170 words]
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents say most of the Valley's heroin, cocaine and marijuana comes from New York, Arizona and Texas. "In western Pennsylvania, you also get some drugs from Michigan and Ohio," said Robin Baggio, an analyst for the National Drug Intelligence Agency. "There are also groups in western Pennsylvania - they go out and bring it back, too," Baggio said. Typically, well-organized gangs move heroin and other drugs to smaller distribution cities such as Austin, Texas, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, where suppliers - who are usually gang members or people who work for them - sell to street level dealers. [continues 780 words]
For seven weeks a heroin needle pointed 19-year-old Elizabeth Gohn toward death. It killed her June 23. An infected needle, rather than heroin itself, caused the death. Now Elizabeth's survivors wants other people not to be ashamed to admit addiction. It saves life. "Talk with other parents. You network about everything, but not about drugs. Why not?" asked Elizabeth's mother, Elaine. Elizabeth was among 43 people to die from heroin in Allegheny County thus far this year, according to the county coroner's office. [continues 1861 words]
PITTSBURGH: Willis Snead moved from Detroit eight years ago to get away from 20 years of using heroin and other drugs. His family settled into Arnold where Snead drifted from one job to another before starting as a customer service representative for AT&T along Penn Avenue. It was a good job with good pay and benefits, and Snead loved it. But life suddenly changed. Doctors told Snead that he had hepatitis C from years of injecting heroin. Then his wife broke the news: She had breast cancer. [continues 728 words]
