DRUG OVERDOSES SPARK FEARS A LETHAL BATCH OF HEROIN HAS HIT NEPA STREETS

WILKES-BARRE -- Four drug overdoses in one day have a local hospital
official concerned that a bad batch of heroin has hit Northeastern
Pennsylvania streets.

Two of those overdoses occurred simultaneously Friday around 3 p.m.
in the Citizens Bank parking garage on South Franklin Street,
according to witnesses. They were both taken to area hospitals.

Luzerne County Coroner Dr. Jack Consalvo said one of those overdoses was fatal.

Wilkes-Barre General Hospital treated three overdoses Friday and
Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre treated one, hospital officials said.

While the Geisinger staff has not noticed a higher volume of
overdoses, Wilkes-Barre General emergency room physician Annette
Brunetti, D.O., said she and her colleagues have seen a spike in the
past week. The emergency room staff is worried bad heroin has finally
arrived in Northeastern Pennsylvania, she said.

"We're pretty suspicious that there's a bad group of drugs out
there," Brunetti said. "We're not sure what they're cut with, but
it's something pretty powerful."

Brunetti is concerned that heroin laced with the powerful painkiller
fentynal, commonly referred to as bad heroin, might be responsible
for the increase in overdoses.

She cannot prove that theory without complete toxicology test
results, which were not immediately available.

Fentynal, stronger than heroin, is often prescribed to terminal
cancer patients. One dose provides 72 hours of pain relief.

"They're both very strong narcotics that depress respiration. You get
deaths from them because (people have) stopped breathing," Brunetti said.

Fentynal-laced heroin is blamed for at least 100 deaths from
Philadelphia to Chicago, according to a recent article in the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The Associated Press reported the drug caused two deaths last week in
Camden County, N.J., and Reading news outlets reported Tuesday the
drug had likely reached Berks County.

Kingston Narcotics Detective Rich Kotchik, a member of the Luzerne
County Drug Task Force, knew the heroin was in New Jersey and heard
it had reached Reading. He could not say if it has reached Luzerne
County. The only way to know for sure is to run toxicology tests, he said.

Wilkes-Barre police would not comment on the possibility of bad
heroin in the area. Officers respond to drug overdoses, but they
generally do not test the drugs that are used, police said.

In addition, the Attorney General's Office did not return calls
seeking comment.

Consalvo has been waiting for the lethal cocktail to arrive in
Northeastern Pennsylvania. To date it has not caused any overdose
deaths locally, he said.

"If it's here, people know how to deal with it. They learned that you
can't use as much of it," he said.

Still, Consalvo has repeatedly cautioned against the recreational use
of fentynal. This year he's seen six overdoses on pharmaceutical fentynal.