Pubdate: Thu, 10 Aug 2006
Source: New York Daily News (NY)
Copyright: 2006 Daily News, L.P.
Contact:  http://www.nydailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/295
Author: Alison Gendar, Daily News Police Bureau Chief
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

N.Y. ON ALERT FOR DEADLY HEROIN BLEND

A potent mix of painkillers and heroin - known as Infinity - has 
killed at least four New Yorkers after claiming the lives of hundreds 
across the nation in recent months, authorities revealed yesterday.

Concerned about the growing danger of the killer concoction, the city 
Health Department has alerted hospitals and emergency workers.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration also has told its New 
York agents and cops working with them to be on the watch for the 
powerful drug, officials said.

The fentanyl-laced heroin with the street name Infinity had not shown 
up in the city since the early 1990s, when a batch sold under the 
name Tango and Cash killed dozens.

But last month it reemerged when a 44-year-old Bronx man overdosed on 
the lethal drug combination, authorities said.

Three other men in the city have died after injecting the laced 
heroin, and similar versions of the drug - sold under the monikers 
Bonecrusher and MC - have caused four nearfatal overdoses in 
Manhattan and the Bronx, sources said.

"It's fast and deadly," said Edmund Donoghue, the chief medical 
examiner of Cook County, Ill., which encompasses Chicago.

Some 172 people in the Chicago area have been killed by 
fentanyl-laced heroin since April 2005, Donoghue said.

Roughly the same number of lives have been claimed in Pittsburgh and 
Philadelphia during the same period. The victims range from suburban 
kids experimenting with drugs to longtime heroin users.

"Ambulances have taken to stocking the antidote because the victim's 
aren't getting to the hospital in time," Donoghue said.

Fentanyl, designed to be a surgical painkiller, is between 50 and 100 
times more potent than morphine, experts said.

As little as 125 micrograms - the equivalent of three grains of salt 
- - can be lethal. And it's that intensity that makes it appealing on 
the streets, authorities said.

"The danger is that it is so potent, so we're afraid some kid trying 
it out on a dare for the first time winds up dead," said a law 
enforcement source.

New York authorities grew concerned after Hector Cruz-Diaz, 44, was 
found collapsed on the floor of his mom's Bronx apartment July 14. A 
hypodermic needle was stuck in his arm and four bags of Infinity were 
scattered nearby. Tests later confirmed the fentanyl mix.

"So far, New York hasn't had the problem of other cities," said John 
Gilbride, the special agent in charge of the DEA's New York office. 
"Everyone is working to keep it that way."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman