HEROIN-COCAINE MIXTURE LINKED DEATHS

HOUSTON -- Authorities say an extremely potent form of heroin or a
toxic batch of drugs may be responsible for the deaths of 14 people
believed to have overdosed on a mixture of cocaine and opiates known
as a "speedball."

Eighteen overdose deaths have been reported in the past four days, but
toxicologists did not detect the heroin-cocaine mixture in four of the
victims. The overdoses far surpass the county's usual two or three in
an average weekend.

A syringe discovered on one of the victims contained a mixture of
heroin, cocaine and lidocaine. Small bags of a powder also containing
the cocaine-heroin compound were found on another victim.

"Historically, it is normally a single pure drug that causes these
kinds of deaths. A combination is new," said Dr. Joye Carter, Harris
County's chief medical examiner.

Carter said some of the victims' initial symptoms, including
sluggishness and nausea, suggested heroin overdoses. Preliminary
toxicology testing was to continue Wednesday.

While Mexican black tar heroin typically found in Houston is about 40
percent pure, drug users may have encountered a heroin from Colombia
or Southeast Asia that could be 90 percent pure, said Lt. Gray Smith
of the Houston Police narcotics division. Police spokesman Alvin
Wright said the victims could also have been poisoned by a bad batch
of drugs.

The victims, mostly Hispanic males, ranged in age from 16 to 46 and
were primarily from northeast Houston.

The death tally increased Tuesday when Harris County authorities
announced that three more people had died from suspected overdoses,
adding to a list of 15 during the weekend.

Other recent overdoses believed to be linked to the combination were
not lethal, including a teen-age boy who had been with one of the
victims, police said.

"It appears that the stuff is all used up now, or people are
responding to the signal: 'Don't take it,"' Houston Police Chief C.O.
Bradford told the Houston Chronicle.

Houston authorities and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration are
investigating.

Sipriano Lopez, a 35-year-old electrician and divorced father of
three, fell unconscious in a relative's car after leaving a nightclub,
his sister, Irma Jaime, told The New York Times. She said she wasn't
aware that he used drugs.

"What he took there, I don't know how to explain," she said. "It just
doesn't make any sense, no sense at all to go to sleep and not wake
up."