Pubdate: Fri, 26 May 2006
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2006 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: David Heinzmann and Jeff Coen, Tribune staff reporters
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

POLICE FORUM WILL TARGET DEATHS FROM HEROIN-PAINKILLER MIX

Federal drug investigators and Chicago police will hold brainstorming 
sessions with police and drug experts from around the country on ways 
to curb deaths related to heroin laced with the painkiller Fentanyl, 
authorities said Thursday.

In recent months, overdose deaths linked to Fentanyl have increased 
and become key issues for police in several cities, including 
Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia.

The conference, set for June 14 and 15, will be led by Chicago police 
and the Drug Enforcement Administration's Chicago field office, said 
DEA Special Agent Christopher Hoyt.

"We want to get a better handle on what we have here," Hoyt said.

Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
have been reviewing autopsy reports and medical records in the 
Detroit area and now believe more than 200 heroin users have been 
killed by Fentanyl in the last several months, a spokeswoman for the 
Atlanta-based agency said.

Heroin laced with Fentanyl has killed more than 40 people in the 
Chicago area in the last year, and undercover investigators are 
buying heroin to try to trace the source, said Frank Limon, chief of 
the Chicago Police Department's organized crime division.

The conference will include experts on pharmacology and will discuss 
where investigators believe the Fentanyl is coming from, Hoyt said. 
The idea is to compare notes and try to determine if the recent 
outbreaks are a growing national issue or a collection of 
coincidental local problems.

"Maybe we'll find that common thread," he said.

The CDC sent epidemiological investigators to Detroit late last week 
at the request of Michigan health officials. It is the first time the 
agency has gotten a request to investigate the effects of Fentanyl, a 
prescription painkiller that experts say can be up to 100 times more 
potent than heroin.

Officials earlier believed there had been about 100 Fentanyl-linked 
deaths in the Detroit area, but as the investigation progressed, CDC 
investigators have found more than 200 cases, said spokeswoman 
Bernadette Burden.

Burden said the CDC is focusing only on Detroit at the moment because 
no other cities or states have asked for its help.
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