PITTSBURGH (AP) – Pittsburgh police are warning addicts after paramedics responded to five heroin overdoses in five hours, including one fatality – and say three appear to be from the same batch of drugs.
Police clarified earlier comments that all the overdoses may be linked by saying Wednesday that only three of the overdoses – none fatal – involved drugs sold in bags stamped “predator” with a shark picture on them.
No markings were found on the “stamp,” or individual dose, bag at a fourth overdose. And bags with different markings were found at the scene of the fatal overdose.
Police don’t know whether the “predator” heroin is especially potent or had been laced with another drug – like fentanyl – that can cause overdoses.
Cmdr. RaShall Brackney initially said Tuesday that “stamp” bags found at the first five overdose scenes on Tuesday had different markings, and appeared to be from different sources.
Several more overdoses have been reported since Tuesday’s five-hour barrage.
Doses of heroin are typically sold in small waxed paper “stamp” bags that usually have a street “brand” name printed on them.
Three victims were treated by paramedics with Narcan, an overdose antidote, and responded positively at those scenes. Two others had to be hospitalized, including the person who died.
Brackney says, “This is now an epidemic and a health crisis.”
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