DEA and State Officials Are Investigating Fatal Mix of Heroin and Fentanyl Causing Heroin Overdose Deaths

The federal Drug Enforcement Agency has set up a texting tip line to anonymously collect information related to the epidemic of heroin overdoses in Pittsburgh in January of this year.

“We want to make sure that we have all the information that we can,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane said Tuesday, January 28th. “We’re coordinating efforts to find out where the dealers are and where the supply is coming from.”

Heroin laced with fentanyl was the reported cause of 22 heroin overdose deaths in Pittsburgh. The deaths involve both men and women between the ages of 22 and 53, who were regular heroin users. According to official reports, 15 of those 22 deaths occurred in the 3rd week of January alone.

Fentanyl is a synthetic morphine substitute, and is 100 times more powerful than morphine. When mixed with heroin, cocaine, or other opiates, fentanyl can increase the drug’s strength, and can result in nausea, sedation, and respiratory problems.

“This is not accidental,” Allegheny County chief medical examiner Dr. Karl Williams said to both CNN and ABC. “Somebody is deliberately trying to make a big batch of fentanyl. It is not an extraordinarily complex molecule to synthesize, and you can find instructions on the Internet. It does not take a sophisticated chemist to do this.”

Dr. Williams says he normally sees one or two heroin overdoses a day.

The bags of laced heroin were reportedly labeled “Theraflu,” “Bud Ice,” and “Income Tax.” The bags were found at each heroin overdose scene. The bags were found primarily around Pittsburgh, but some cases have been reported across other areas of Western Pennsylvania, and the drug appears to be spreading across the state. A Pennsylvania State Police bulleting over the weekend of January 25th reported two new drug names: “Coors Light” and “Diesel.”

In a statement, Kane said that her office would be “working with the Allegheny County Police Department, the Pittsburgh Police, and their counterparts in the region to get this deadly mix of heroin off the streets of Western Pennsylvania.” Furthermore, she said they would be actively looking “to arrest and prosecute anyone caught selling, distributing, and producing these drugs.”

“Those who are in possession of this potent formula are in danger of losing their lives,” Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto warned on Saturday, following four additional overdoses, including one fatality in the city. “It will kill you. The danger cannot be overstated.”

The DEA is now accepting information related to the heroin overdoses. Tips can be texted to “Tip411” (847411). Investigators request that tipsters to include the keyword “PGHOD” — short for Pittsburgh overdoses — in the message.

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