Pubdate: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 Source: Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, NJ) Copyright: 2006 Courier-Post Contact: http://www.courierpostonline.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/826 Author: Mark Leiser Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) HEROIN OVERDOSES KEEP TAKING LIVES Camden County authorities spent Sunday investigating three more apparent heroin overdoses, one of them fatal. The incidents raised to 42 the number of people requiring hospitalization for adverse reactions to drugs since Friday. The victim of the fatal overdose -- a 31-year-old man whose name was not released -- was discovered around 12:25 p.m. in the Riviera Motor Inn on Route 73 in Pennsauken, said Bill Shralow, spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. A bag of heroin found in the room was stamped with the word "Chemistry," Shralow said. Police also found crack cocaine. Investigators believe the man purchased the drugs in Philadelphia. Two other people were hospitalized for apparent adverse reactions to drugs, Shralow said. One incident happened in Camden. The location of the other was not immediately available from authorities. This is the second rash of heroin overdoses in South Jersey in two months. Eight people died and dozens more were hospitalized in April. "There's no way to know right now whether the two waves . . . are related, but certainly that's going to be investigated," Shralow said. "There is a bad batch of something going around right now and, if there was ever a time for somebody who's got a problem to start a new page, this would be the time." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman