POLICE CAN'T FIND DEADLY DRUG'S SOURCE

The drug mixture is suspected of nearly 30 deaths in the Philadelphia
area and at least seven in Delaware. Almost a month after the start
of a string of overdoses and deaths related to heroin that has been
laced with a powerful prescription painkiller, law enforcement
officials are unable to pinpoint the source of the deadly mixture.

The drug mixture is suspected in nearly 30 deaths in the Philadelphia
area and at least seven in Delaware.

Autopsies on the cases in Delaware won't be complete for four to six
weeks, said Jay Lynch, spokesman for the Department of Health &
Social Services.Advertisement

In most of the cases here, police have found that fentanyl -- a
painkiller prescribed for severe, chronic pain -- is mixed with
heroin. The off-white powder is indistinguishable from heroin to the
human eye, Wilmington Master Sgt. William Wells said. Some of the
bags police have turned up have been all fentanyl.

The source of the laced heroin is still unknown.

"We're trying to find out but we haven't had any luck," Wells said.
"From what I understand, it's very, very difficult to determine where
fentanyl comes from."

Police in New Jersey scored a major bust last week when they arrested
a man in Camden who was storing 1,372 bags of heroin. The drugs are
being tested to see if they contain fentanyl.

Rogene Waite, spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration,
would not comment on the ongoing heroin investigation.

Prescribed fentanyl typically comes in two forms, a patch -- for
severe, chronic pain from physical injuries -- and a lollipop-type
lozenge -- for severe flares of pain in cancer patients.

Actiq, a lozenge with fentanyl, is made by Frazer, Pa.-based
Cephalon. Spokeswoman Stacey Beckhardt said Cephalon's warehouses are
monitored on a daily basis.

"I would never say that there is no risk of something happening, but
we have no evidence that [any stealing of fentanyl] has occurred,"
she said. "It would be difficult, and, to use a drug dealer's
analysis, probably not the most cost-effective way to do it."

Doctors, including Barry Bakst of the Delaware Back Pain and Sports
Rehabilitation Centers, have warned their patients on fentanyl to
refrain from telling others to protect themselves from theft. Many of
Bakst's patients use a fentanyl-based patch called Duragesic. The
patch, which is worn for 72 hours, is made by Janssen
Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Titusville, N.J.

Addicts have extracted the fentanyl from the patches, the DEA's Waite said.

Bakst, who has heard of that method, cautions patients before they
use the patch because of fentanyl's addiction.

"We screen people who want it because people who are addicted will go
doctor shopping and give false medical histories so they can get it," he said.

A Newark woman said her doctor cautioned her not to tell people she
had a supply of the drug.

Helena, who is in her mid-50s and asked that her last name not be
used to protect her identity, began using the patch shortly after
suffering a major back injury in the spring of 2002.

But the patch has helped her overcome the pain and become active
again. She plants a 50 microgram patch on one of her shoulders every
72 hours. She's not surprised that people can get addicted to it.

"If I forget to put it on I can feel the difference immediately," she
said. "I get jittery, nervous. I can't sleep and wonder what's the
matter with me."

Besides her doctors, only her husband and children know she has it.

"A doctor told me not to carry it with me and not to tell people I'm
on it and not to wear short sleeves," she said. "I've instructed my
children not to tell anyone else."