MORE HEROIN OVERDOSES REPORTED IN VINELAND

VINELAND -- Another Vineland resident suffered from a heroin overdose
Tuesday that knocked her unconscious.

It was the 20th overdose in about three weeks, according to a tally
from Vineland police and emergency medical service reports. None have
died, but most recent overdose cases have landed users in the emergency room.

Luz Roman, 30, injected the drug into her arm in a friend's bathroom
and almost immediately collapsed, a police report said.

Orlando Aguilar-Garcia, who lives in the 700 block of Tulip Street,
called 911 after he checked on Roman when he heard her fall to the
floor. He told police he didn't know she was going to use the drug in
his house.

The report said that it didn't take Roman long to regain
consciousness. Police charged her with possession of a syringe and
using heroin, but not before she could make some criminal complaints
of her own.

"I want to sign a complaint against the person that put poison in my
heroin," she told police in the report. "I only did one bag."

Local law-enforcement and medical officials are trying to determine
if Vineland's heroin supply is being contaminated before it reaches
the streets here.

Dealers will sometimes add substances to the drug to increase their profit.

This weekend, two other people suffered overdoses. Garden Road
resident Kenneth Kobash, 42, was hanging out of a minivan window when
police found him, another report said. He was unresponsive and not
breathing. EMS revived him, the report said.

Later that day, Geraldo Cordova used heroin in his father's Montrose
Street bathroom, leaving him unconscious. A friend found him and he
was also quickly revived, police reports said.