COMMUNITY NEAR MUNCIE WORRIED ABOUT OVERDOSE DEATHS

HARTFORD CITY - A growing number of overdoses of prescription drugs
including the powerful synthetic painkiller fentanyl has caught the
attention of Blackford County officials. They met this week to
discuss some alarming statistics, including at least nine deaths
attributed to "mixed-drug intoxication" in the north-central county
since 2003. Local ambulance runs for the first five months of 2006
include 30 known drug overdoses and 146 for patients having "altered
levels" of consciousness.

Detective Jack Beckley, in a statement issued by the Hartford City
Police Department on Wednesday, noted the irony that prescription
drugs are distributed by doctors "here to heal us and improve our
quality of life." "It is so unfortunate that there are certain people
in society that take advantage of this by intentionally deceiving
medical personnel just to get more pills or patches that they can
turn around and sell, which in turn creates more addicts and dealers.
It is a vicious cycle," Beckley said.

The nine fatal overdoses claimed the lives of six men and three women
whose average age was 41, County Coroner Ted Waters said. The drugs
found in their bodies included opiates and synthetic, opiate-based
prescription medications such as fentanyl, hydrocodone, oxycodone,
methadone, and alprazolam, a generic form of the anti-anxiety drug
Xanax. In nearby Tipton County, toxicology tests showed a 21-year-old
jail inmate, Joshua Lee Maine, died last November of "mixed-drug
intoxication" involving fentanyl and alprazolam. At least seven
deaths in Indiana since 2005 have been blamed on abuse of fentanyl
skin patches, and more than 100 deaths have been reported this year
from Chicago to Philadelphia among drug addicts who overdosed on
heroin mixed with fentanyl.

Hartford City Police Chief Matt Felver and other officials urged the
public to become aware of the dangers of prescription drug abuse and
report any suspicious activity involving the sale or trade of medications.

They encouraged local residents not to leave prescription medications
unattended in their cars or around their homes. They also warned that
placing a prescription medication, a controlled substance, in a
different container not intended for it could violate state law.

"These tips sound like common sense, but unfortunately law
enforcement has to deal with these types of predicaments every day,"
Beckley said.