Pubdate: Fri, 05 Apr 2002
Source: Tribune Review (PA)
Copyright: 2002 Tribune-Review Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://triblive.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/460
Author: Bob Stiles
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

HEROIN DEATHS WORRY CORONER

Westmoreland County Coroner Ken Bacha asked for toxicology tests on two 
recent cases to be accelerated because of a concern about an increase this 
year in the number of county deaths involving young adult males.

The findings came back to his office Thursday, and the results were the 
same as in seven previous cases in 2002 - the deaths resulted from drug 
overdoses, he said.

In both of the recent cases, heroin was a factor, Bacha said.

"We know of three heroin deaths and possibly a fourth one since the first 
of this year," he explained. "In a county this size, where we don't have a 
lot of them, it got our attention."

According to speculation, increased competition among suppliers has 
resulted in the circulation of a purer form of the drug than usual.

"(That's) a possibility  but we have no proof of that, and neither do state 
police," Bacha said earlier this week.

The nine drug-related deaths recorded this year equal the entire number of 
drug overdoses recorded for 1999 in Westmoreland County.

 From 1992 through 1998, 33 people in the county died from drug overdoses, 
defined as fatalities caused by one drug, a combination of drugs, a 
combination of drugs and alcohol or from alcohol alone. That computes to an 
average of 4.7 deaths per year.

In 2001, 16 deaths were attributed to drug overdoses in the county, 
according to the coroner's office.

All the drug overdoses in the county this year have involved males, 
"most  in their 20s or early 30s," Bacha said.

Dr. Charles Winek, a toxicologist and director of PC Laboratories, an 
uptown Pittsburgh firm that does toxicology testing for Westmoreland and 
other western Pennsylvania counties, guessed that purer-than-usual heroin 
could be a factor in the increase in deaths.

"It's not uncommon for this, and it's because of the competition in New 
York, Cleveland  wherever it comes from," he said.

Winek said speed shooting - injecting heroin into a vein too quickly - is 
another possible explanation. Problems also can arise for a user new to a 
drug, he said.

Winek, a professor of toxicology at Duquesne University for 38 years, said 
it may be up to police to find the specific reason for the increase in 
overdoses.

"The only way you find out is to get some of it and analyze it," he said. 
"The only way we'll resolve that  is if we have the syringe, the bag, the 
powder."

But Winek agrees that deaths as a result of drug overdoses appear to be 
increasing.

"We're starting to see an influx. We have them from all the counties - 
Butler, Westmoreland, Beaver," Winek said, adding that he doesn't keep a 
tally of the drug-related fatalities tested in his office.

"It's ongoing, but there appears to be an increase."

Efforts to immediately retrieve statistics from Beaver and Butler counties 
were unsuccessful. Coroners in those counties also couldn't be reached for 
comment.

Fayette County reported three accidental drug overdoses from January 
through March of this year. The coroner's office there attributed three 
suicides to drug overdoses in 2001 and eight others to accidental deaths 
related to drug overdoses.

Fayette County Coroner Dr. Phillip E. Reilly said it's difficult to make 
judgments based only on three months of statistics in a year, but he 
guessed that the number of drug-related deaths is higher so far this year 
in Fayette.

He was not aware of a strong, purer form of heroin being sold in Fayette 
County.

"I'm not aware of any highly potent heroin at all. It hasn't come across 
the coroner's desk," Reilly said.

But he agreed that stronger than normal heroin can be a problem and cause 
deaths.

"I think that happens in the bigger cities when too strong a mix  is 
involved," Reilly said.

Heroin appears as morphine in the blood, Winek explained.

Of the two most recent Westmoreland County cases, one death resulted from 
heroin alone. Heroin was present with cocaine and alcohol in the other 
case, Bacha said.

He said the other drug-related deaths in the county this year involved 
cocaine, OxyContin or combinations of other substances.

No particular Westmoreland County area has been tied to drug-related deaths.

"The biggest bulk of them ... has been from suburban, rural areas," Bacha said.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Alex