OVERDOSES BLAMED ON HEROIN GLUT, NOT TAINTED DRUGS

ROCHESTER -- A recent spate of fatal heroin overdoses in the Rochester area
does not appear to be linked to tainted or extra-potent batches of drugs,
according to the Monroe County Medical Examiner's Office.

"There is nothing different in these cases than what we've seen in past
years," Dr. Jeanne Beno, chief toxicologist for the office, told Rochester
Democrat & Chronicle.

Six people in Monroe County died from heroin overdoses between Aug. 2 and
Aug. 11. A seventh person died from an overdose of cocaine and alcohol in
the same period.

That led Rochester Police Chief Robert Duffy to issue a public warning that
a deadly batch of drugs might be circulating in the area.

But Beno said Friday the increase in deaths is more likely tied to an
increase in the amount of heroin on the streets. "I suspect it relates
largely to availability," she said.

Rochester police said a dose of heroin -- about 0.06 grams -- now costs
about $15 to $20. Police also are investigating whether the local deaths
are related to similar heroin deaths in other cities.

Buffalo had nine such deaths between May 24 and Aug. 7. In the Houston
area, there were 15 fatal overdoses the weekend of Aug. 11 and 12.

The number of heroin deaths investigated by the Monroe County Medical
Examiner's Office, which does some work for other counties, has been rising
for the past several years, but accelerated sharply this year. By the end
of August, it reached 24.

One of the seven who died in the Rochester area was Gregory Coleman, a
witness in the murder trial of Kennedy nephew Michael Skakel.

Skakel, 40, is the son of Rushton Skakel, the brother of Robert F.
Kennedy's widow, Ethel. He has pleaded innocent to killing neighbor Martha
Moxley in Greenwich, Conn., in 1975, when both were 15.

Coleman, 39, testified at a hearing in April that Skakel told him: "I'm
gonna get away with murder. I'm a Kennedy" when the two attended a
substance abuse center in Maine in the late 1970s.

He later admitted he had injected heroin just before testifying to the
one-judge grand jury whose investigation led to Skakel's arrest on a murder
charge.