SUSPECTED HOT DOSES SEND HEROIN USERS TO ER

SALISBURY -- The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is
conducting tests to see if heroin used by six people who ended up at
Peninsula Regional Medical Center Thursday was laced with a substance
even more dangerous than the drug itself.

The tests followed an unusual day for Wicomico health officials
Thursday, who were notified of the rash of hospital cases that
afternoon. Dr. Judith Sensenbrenner, director of the county's health
department, said six people with similar symptoms arrived at the
hospital between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. Thursday, with difficulty
breathing and unconsiousness.

Heroin use appeared to link their cases, Sensenbrenner said, and
medical workers suspected that a foreign substance in the drugs they
used had caused the symptoms. Sensenbrenner said she was advising
drug users specifically not to use heroin, although the department
did not issue a formal statement or post new information to its Web
site by this morning.

"Drug use is bad any time, but it's even more dangerous here because
people are not expecting the kinds of reactions they're getting,"
Sensenbrenner said. She said the DHMH tests had not yet identified if
the heroin had been laced with something else.

No deaths among the six cases have been reported.