Fentanyl-Laced Heroin Linked To Dozens Of Deaths
A Pennsylvania medical examiner reports more than a dozen people have died in recent weeks from overdosing on laced heroin thought to be sweeping the region.
Allegheny County medical examiner Dr. Karl Williams said Thursday that laboratory tests confirmed that the ultra-potent painkiller fentanyl was present in heroin samples seized in connection with at least 14 overdose deaths in Pennsylvania, according to the Pittsburgh Gazette.
Fentanyl, which is typically prescribed to cancer patients as a last resort, can be 10 to 100 times stronger than morphine, according to CNN. The laced heroin has been sold under street names like “Bud Ice” and “Theraflu.”
Williams anticipates further tests will link the laced heroin to other overdose deaths in the state. In six western Pennsylvania counties, 22 people died from heroin overdoses in the past two weeks.
“It is a marked increase… at least three or four times what we would expect,” Williams told CNN.
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