POLICE FORUM WILL TARGET DEATHS FROM HEROIN-PAINKILLER MIX

Federal drug investigators and Chicago police will hold brainstorming
sessions with police and drug experts from around the country on ways
to curb deaths related to heroin laced with the painkiller Fentanyl,
authorities said Thursday.

In recent months, overdose deaths linked to Fentanyl have increased
and become key issues for police in several cities, including
Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia.

The conference, set for June 14 and 15, will be led by Chicago police
and the Drug Enforcement Administration's Chicago field office, said
DEA Special Agent Christopher Hoyt.

"We want to get a better handle on what we have here," Hoyt said.

Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
have been reviewing autopsy reports and medical records in the
Detroit area and now believe more than 200 heroin users have been
killed by Fentanyl in the last several months, a spokeswoman for the
Atlanta-based agency said.

Heroin laced with Fentanyl has killed more than 40 people in the
Chicago area in the last year, and undercover investigators are
buying heroin to try to trace the source, said Frank Limon, chief of
the Chicago Police Department's organized crime division.

The conference will include experts on pharmacology and will discuss
where investigators believe the Fentanyl is coming from, Hoyt said.
The idea is to compare notes and try to determine if the recent
outbreaks are a growing national issue or a collection of
coincidental local problems.

"Maybe we'll find that common thread," he said.

The CDC sent epidemiological investigators to Detroit late last week
at the request of Michigan health officials. It is the first time the
agency has gotten a request to investigate the effects of Fentanyl, a
prescription painkiller that experts say can be up to 100 times more
potent than heroin.

Officials earlier believed there had been about 100 Fentanyl-linked
deaths in the Detroit area, but as the investigation progressed, CDC
investigators have found more than 200 cases, said spokeswoman
Bernadette Burden.

Burden said the CDC is focusing only on Detroit at the moment because
no other cities or states have asked for its help.