DELAYED DRUG ALERT DEADLY?

Federal drug officials issued a public warning in November that
heroin purchased by undercover law enforcement agents in Detroit
contained a lethal amount of the painkiller fentanyl -- but it took
Wayne County officials six months to alert the public.

"At the time, it wasn't clear it was a public health threat," Wayne
County Medical Examiner Carl Schmidt said.

Since then, more than 70 Metro Detroit heroin users have died from an
overdose with fentanyl in their blood, and 19 more people are
suspected to have died similarly late last week. Chicago,
Philadelphia and other cities are experiencing similar problems, but
Wayne County is believed to be the community where the most heroin
users in the nation have died with fentanyl in their blood.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent two
officials to Wayne County on Monday for five days to review the
deaths from this year, 70 so far, and last year, which totaled 63.
Typically, Wayne County sees 20-25 fentanyl-associated deaths
annually and those are usually people with cancer, who take their own
lives because they can't bear the pain, Schmidt said.

The trend of more heroin users dying with fentanyl in their blood
wasn't clear because often those who die have several drugs in their
system, Schmidt said. What's more, the total number of heroin users
stayed the same: Every year since 2000, about 220 people die from
heroin use in Wayne County. Though fentanyl-associated deaths in
Wayne County increased from an average of two dozen people annually
to 63 people last year, the total number of people who died from
heroin stayed the same.

Detroit averages 2-3 people who die from a drug overdose daily. But
last week, four people died on Thursday, eight on Friday, two on
Saturday and five on Sunday. Officials alerted the public Friday.

Valerie Wynns, who knew a 27-year-old Lincoln Park man who died in
March of a drug overdose with fentanyl in his blood, said it was
tragic that it took so long to figure out.

"They did not connect the dots," Wynns said. "We are in the computer
era. Why can't the government be linked so that people don't die in
the interim?"