POLICE SAY TAINTED HEROIN NOW IN OHIO

COLUMBUS | Police here, in Dayton and in Mansfield have found a
painkiller-laced heroin that has killed addicts in Detroit, Chicago
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Fentanyl turned up in six of 10 batches of heroin confiscated by
Mansfield police, said police laboratory director Anthony Tambasco.
The lab started testing for the drug just before Memorial Day after
hearing of numerous recent deaths in Detroit, he said.

About a half dozen deaths related to fentanyl-laced heroin in
Montgomery County have been found since the beginning of the year,
said Ken Betz, director of the county coroner's office in Dayton.

"We had them where they chew it. We've had them where they shot it
up," Betz said. "What they're seeing nationally we're seeing locally."

Columbus police have discovered at least three cases of heroin mixed
with fentanyl in the past month, crime lab manager Jami St. Clair said.

Fentanyl, commonly used to treat cancer pain, can be up to 50 times
stronger than heroin, said Columbus Police Sgt. Steve Overholser.

The drug can be lethal just on its own, and matching it with heroin
makes it even deadlier, said Mansfield police Sgt. Mike Bammann.

The Detroit area is the apparent hub of the problem, with more than
100 confirmed cases since last fall.

In Chicago, there have been more than 60 confirmed fentanyl overdoses
since April 2005, with the vast majority of them coming this year,
the Drug Enforcement Administration said. Deaths caused by
fentanyl-laced drugs have also been reported in Missouri, New Jersey,
Delaware and Maryland.

Bammann said undercover police are trying to pinpoint who is
supplying the bad heroin to Mansfield-area dealers. The city is about
65 miles northeast of Columbus.

The State Highway Patrol crime lab tests heroin for fentanyl
regularly but has not come across the drug, Lt. Rick Zwayer said.

In Mansfield, Paul Jones, the Richland County coroner, said his
office is rechecking recent overdose deaths to see if any were
related to fentanyl-laced heroin. Addicts will probably not be scared
straight by warnings, he said.

"People don't care what they put in their veins. Unfortunately, there
will be some who will probably die," he said.

The DEA says heroin distribution is increasing in Ohio, with the drug
being shipped directly from Chicago, Detroit, New York City and the
Mexican border.

A recent case involving fentanyl was traced from Pittsburgh to a lab
in Mexico, Tambasco said.

Heroin use is also on the rise, with the percentage of heroin users
seeking treatment doubling from 1997 to 2005, said Eric Wandersleben,
a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services.

It's cheaper and easier to find heroin, and it is growing in
popularity with teenagers and young adults, he said.

Fentanyl abuse first surfaced in the state in 2003, Wandersleben
said. But mixing fentanyl and heroin has not been common, he said.

In March 2005, a Kent State university freshman died after ingesting
fentanyl, which had been prescribed for her mother, a cancer patient.