DEADLY DRUG COCKTAIL SURFACES LOCALLY

With a potentially deadly batch of heroin blamed for the deaths of
two Cumberland County residents in two days, Coroner Mike Norris had
a very simple message:

"I don't need the business, folks. We need to make it known that this
deadly combination is out there," he said at a press conference
Wednesday morning. In front of him, two enlarged color photographs
each contained a small bag with a crude black stamp on it.

On one, the word "DIESEL" had been stamped.

Authorities had just confirmed Tuesday night that the substance
inside -- a mix of heroin and potent pain-killers rarely seen in the
county -- was in the blood of a 28-year-old Carlisle man found dead
in his home Monday, Cumberland County District Attorney Dave Freed
said. Police have identified the deceased as Phillip L. Miller of the
1000 block of South Hanover Street.

The other packet bore only the small insignia of a skull and crossbones.

"It was more appropriate than perhaps the person stamping it knew,"
Norris said. Both bags were single hits and would have cost about $20, he said.

A 29-year-old woman was found dead in Lower Allen Tuesday. Same-day
test results from a recently created forensic lab confirmed that it
was contained both heroin and fentanyl, as did the DIESEL packet,
Freed said. A sample of the second victim's blood had been mailed
overnight to a separate lab, with Norris confirming Wednesday night
that toxicology results further confirmed the presence of both drugs
in her body.

Freed and Norris have said that it appeared both victims had injected
the substance, which appears to have come from different sources.

Traced To Harrisburg

"We have two different types of packaging," Freed said, adding: "We
have every reason to believe the bag found in Lower Allen came from
Harrisburg."

Carlisle Mayor Kirk Wilson said the Carlisle bag was also tentatively
traced to Harrisburg, but that "I don't think they are the same people."

"In general, it's purchased in Harrisburg. It's sort of a middle
source. The heroin is packaged elsewhere, in Baltimore, Philadelphia
and New York," he said.

It was probably cut with fentanyl -- a medication that is 50 to 100
times more potent than morphine and available almost exclusively at
hospitals -- so that the dealer could claim his goods pack "more
punch" than other suppliers', Freed said.

"The irony of the situation is, the closer the heroin is to being
able to kill, the more appealing it is to the addict," Freed said.

And while his role is primarily as an enforcer of the law, Freed
said, retarding the circulation of similarly deadly doses was the top priority.

'A Larger Issue'

"This is a crime, but there's a larger issue here. People can
overcome an addiction, people can overcome criminal charges, but they
can't overcome death," he said, urging addicts to consider using the
deaths as motivation to "get help."

The exact proportions of fentanyl to heroin were not yet available.
Norris said it wouldn't take much of the more expensive painkiller to
have a lethal interaction with its more common poppy-derived cousin.

In light of several recent deaths in Dauphin County attributed to
heroin/fentanyl combinations, Freed said investigators have not yet
determined where the fentanyl is coming from. It's believed that
clandestine labs are to blame, he said.

In June, the Associated Press quoted U.S. drug czar John Walters
reporting a recently closed lab in Mexico that might be the main
source of the fentanyl being put in U.S. heroin.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said it was testing fentanyl
seized in Mexico to see if it could be linked to deaths in Illinois,
Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.

The AP also said at the time that fentanyl-laced heroin had been
blamed in "recent months" for at least 100 deaths from Philadelphia
to Chicago, including several in Pittsburgh earlier this summer.

Freed said the confiscated packets -- which are rarely found with
heroin overdoses -- would be analyzed in the hopes of determining their origin.

Not Same Grade

Norris added that the sort of fentanyl available in prescription
patches is not likely the same grade of fentanyl found in the deadly blends.

A North Middleton woman was arrested recently on charges that she had
been stealing the patches from a terminally ill nursing home patient
- -- a case that Freed referred to but called unrelated.

As for the legal ramifications for the suppliers of the deadly
packets, Freed pointed to a a specific charge -- drug delivery
resulting in death -- but said it was difficult to prove.

"That requires the same state of mind required for third-degree
murder: malice and intent," he said. Norris added: "We have no
reason to believe that somebody's purposefully trying to kill heroin
users... a drug dealer doesn't make any more money if their people
don't come back."

Freed noted that heroin users are increasingly younger in age.

"Parents should be extra vigilant," he said, as the packets are often
referred to by their stamp names, which ranges from "Apollo" in some
of the Dauphin County cases to "DIESEL" and other designations.

He pointed out that, while police are bound by strict search and
seizure guidelines, parents are not.

"If they suspect something, they shouldn't be afraid to check in
drawers and shoeboxes... their children may be upset with them for
going in their room, but it could save their life."

Cumberland DA's Crime Lab Provides Speedy Science

Cumberland County officials are crediting a little-known crime lab
with the speedy science that allowed them to isolate the suspected
lethal cause of two deaths this week and make a connection between them.

The Cumberland County Forensic Lab, a division of the district
attorney's Bureau of Justice Services, was first started some four
years ago in the old prison on High Street. Authorities said they
were creating the first independent county lab in the state because a
lighter and smaller case load would allow for more flexibility in
prioritizing cases.

For example, Director of Justice Services Eric Radnovich in January
estimated the average turn-around time for crime-scene samples at 22
days. At the time, he stressed that authorities could finish more
urgent cases in even less time.

In Tuesday's suspected fatal overdose, authorities were called in the
morning after a woman was found dead in Lower Allen. By "lunch
time," Cumberland County Coroner Mike Norris dropped off a bag of
suspected heroin at the lab.

"We had the results by 3:30" p.m., he said. "It's another advantage
of having a forensic lab set up in the county."

At last count, the lab has four full-time employees and a part-timer
in addition to municipal police officers assigned to specialized
response units. For instance, there are 12 officers in the county who
are assigned to and respond with a crime scene analysis team. An
additional six officers are on a special vehicular accident
reconstruction team that is called out to the more serious accidents.

In 2005, the bureau's drug laboratory processed 1,125 chemical
samples, many of them against drug "standards" of pure, uncut
contraband, Radnovich said.

The lab contains equipment ranging from the $100,000 gas
chromatograph/mass spectrometer to a homemade super-glue fuming tank.

Although quick to praise existing regional crime labs that provide
free services to municipal police, county officials say the lab's
larger case load means longer turn-around times -- one official has
estimated it at about 22 days with state police labs.

"That's the nice thing about having your own lab, when your bosses
come to you and say put a priority on this, you can," Radnovich said.

His "boss," meanwhile, said in the past, investigators might had to
wait even longer.

"This way, we've had results long before the autopsies are done,"
Cumberland County District Attorney Dave Freed said.