COUNTY DRUG DEATHS SURGE WITH HEROIN IN MIX

TOMS RIVER -- An extremely pure and potent batch of heroin has caused
a dramatic increase in the number of deaths from drug and alcohol
overdoses in Ocean County this year, officials said.

At this time last year, there had been 33 fatal overdoses since Jan.
1. This year, 53 people have died from an overload of drugs, alcohol
or a combination of the two.

"Every time people use these drugs, they are playing Russian roulette
with their lives," Ocean County Prosecutor Thomas F. Kelaher said at
a news conference Tuesday.

"What concerns us most is the sharp increase in heroin overdoses."

County officials said that the heroin being used in Ocean County is
different from the heroin that has been linked to a slew of recent
overdoses in Cape May County. That heroin is believed to be coming
from Philadelphia and contained the synthetic drug fentanyl. Only two
of the Ocean County deaths were caused by fentanyl, and in those
cases heroin was not involved.

"The main cause of the overdoses is the purity of the drug and its
wide availability," said Capt. Michael Mohel, who leads the
prosecutor's Major Crime Unit. Most of the heroin being consumed and
sold in Ocean County is coming from Newark, Camden, Plainfield and
Asbury Park, according to the Prosecutor's Office.

Joanne Vieth, director of the drug treatment program Lighthouse at
Ocean County in Stafford Township, says her patients have told her
recently that the heroin they have been using is much stronger than
it used to be. "We have had some patients that have overdosed because
it was lot more powerful than what they're used to," she said.

Dan Meara, a spokesman for the National Council on Drug and Alcohol
Dependency in New Jersey, said that the state's geography explained
some of the potency.

"New Jersey does have an exceedingly pure form of heroin," Meara
said. "It's where the drug enters the country, through the ports in
Newark. As it makes its way out of the area it gets cut more
regularly and therefore is weakened."

Dover had the most fatalities at 12, followed by Brick with six, and
Manchester and Seaside Heights with five each. About one third of the
deaths were among people younger than 30. The youngest victim, who
was 16 years old, took a painkiller called Oxycodone, a prescription
drug that has become popular for abuse among teenagers. The oldest
person who died was a 78-year-old man who overdosed on alcohol.

Officials said combining the stronger heroin with other drugs also
has led to deaths. Almost one third of the overdoses involved the
combined use of at least two different drugs, mostly heroin or
alcohol mixed with another substance.

"Alcohol can speed up an overdose," Mohel said. "We say overdose,
but it could be any dose, any hit could be fatal depending on potency
and combination, so it doesn't necessarily mean they've taken a lot
of the drug."

In addition to the 53 fatalities, officials said there are also many
overdoses in which the user comes close to death. In 2003, the
Prosecutor's Office conducted a survey of acute-care facilities in
the area. It found 396 incidents in which an overdose victim would
have died without medical attention.

County officials said they wanted to warn the public and encourage
drug users to seek help.

Vieth, the director of Lighthouse in Stafford, says it as important
for the family members and friends of addicts to be aware of
treatment options as it is for addicts themselves.

"Addiction is a family disease, it doesn't happen in a vacuum," she
said. "If the family and friends don't get educated, they can't
expect the addict to do it by themselves. It doesn't work that way."

The Prosecutor's Office says that preventing fatalities and drug
abuse required a multi-pronged approach.

"The main thing is to get help for these people," Kelaher said. "We
have prevention programs, we have drug court and we have enforcement.
Many of them need to find treatment that can take them out of
revolving door of drugs and jail."