Quote:First responders were reeling in Cincinnati after a mid-week spate of more than 50 heroin overdoses from Tuesday morning to Wednesday night.

Even in the midst of a drug epidemic that has made opioid overdoses an increasingly common feature in towns and cities across the nation, the wave of emergencies reported in Cincinnati took police, emergency responders and medical professionals by surprise, WCPO, a local ABC affiliate reported on Wednesday night.

The 911 calls came from all over the city, WCPO reported, including one from the bathroom of an ice cream parlor, another from a McDonald’s, and yet another from the scene of a car crash caused by a man who had overdosed while driving.

Several of the overdose victims had to be revived, but one was not so lucky, turning the scene outside a local restaurant grim as authorities carried away the individual in a body bag.

“I am very disturbed about it,” area resident Richard Henson told WCPO. “It really saddens my heart.”

Police suspect a batch of heroin mixed with fentanyl, carfentanil or even rat poison may be to blame for the wave of overdoses.

Each of these ingredients is known to produce a greater high and a greater risk of overdose and death than pure heroin, said WCPO.

The deadly drug cocktails have even proven resistant to treatments like Narcan that have reduced overdose death rates. In at least one of the Cincinnati overdoses, the victim had to be given two doses of Narcan.

"I've got to say to whoever pushed this out on the street, this was the wrong thing to do," Newtown police Chief Tom Synan, head of the Hamilton County Heroin Coalition, told WCPO.

“You now have the full and undivided attention of the Hamilton County Coalition Task Force, which includes local, state and federal agencies, and I can tell you we'll all be working with the Cincinnati Police Department to see who pushed this out on the street."

Police suspect the involvement of multiple street-level dealers in the extremely dangerous batch, with at least one giving it away for free, said Capt. Aaron Jones of the Cincinnati Police Department.

"Of the victims (Tuesday) that would talk to us and were honest in telling us where they received this heroin from, it’s from several different people ... from several different areas," Jones told WCPO. "Some of those were given almost as what we call testers -- 'Try this out and if you like it, you can get a hold of me.'"

Cincinnati is not the only area dealing with a sudden surge in overdose rates. A West Virginia town saw 27 heroin overdoses within 4 hours a week ago.

More than 47,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2014, with opioids like heroin and fentanyl accounting for nearly 60 percent of that total.

The number of heroin users in the United States reached one million in 2014, a 20-year high, while heroin-related deaths have increased five-fold since 2000, according to a United Nations study published in June.

(08-25-2016, 01:35 PM)BFritz21 Wrote: ...It blows me away how people are even still trying heroin...

(08-25-2016, 02:21 PM)Sabretooth Wrote: Are folk that do illegal drugs aware of the news media ?
Or just sadly overwhelmed by the addiction at hand ?

(08-25-2016, 02:00 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Sad part is that some people will see this as a sign that they can get the "good shit" in Cincy.

(08-25-2016, 02:21 PM)Sabretooth Wrote: Are folk that do illegal drugs aware of the news media ?
Or just sadly overwhelmed by the addiction at hand ?

(08-25-2016, 03:02 PM)Penn Wrote: TLDR - In many cases they do see the news and are aware of the death but in many of those cases they either don't fear or would even welcome death due to underlying issues which our society ignores when speaking about addiction.

(08-26-2016, 02:57 PM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: Get all the people in prison for weed out of there. And start filling it up with these heroin people. I dont get why we are babying these people. Safe spaces to shoot up, needle exchanges, teams of tax payer funded professionals going around and reviving people.

Start laying the smack down. Busted with heroin drug paraphernalia 3 years minimum. Heroin at least 5 years minimum. Catering to these people has made it worse.

(08-25-2016, 06:14 PM)BigPapaKain Wrote: Legalize everything and Darwinism will solve the problem.

(08-26-2016, 04:15 PM)fredtoast Wrote: This is a horrible idea.  Putting all these people in prison for years would be a HUGE waste of taxpayer money.

Prisons should be for people who are a threat to other people, not for people who are a threat to themselves.

(08-26-2016, 07:30 PM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: Heroin turns you in to a criminal. Robbing and stealing to get your fix. It hurts their family especially if they have kids. And it is a danger to everbody who uses roads because they think shooting up and driving around is a good idea.

Quote:A bunch of heroin addicts repeatedly arrested and allowed to go back on the street is a threat to society. 

We are already wasting money pandering to these people. Making sure they have tools to use drugs. Safe places to shoot up. And police officers wasting hundreds of hours babysitting junkies and reviving them if they die.

(08-26-2016, 04:15 PM)fredtoast Wrote: This is a horrible idea.  Putting all these people in prison for years would be a HUGE waste of taxpayer money.

Prisons should be for people who are a threat to other people, not for people who are a threat to themselves.

(08-26-2016, 04:15 PM)fredtoast Wrote: This is a horrible idea.  Putting all these people in prison for years would be a HUGE waste of taxpayer money.

Prisons should be for people who are a threat to other people, not for people who are a threat to themselves.

(08-29-2016, 01:18 AM)BFritz21 Wrote: Another one of your Democratic ideas of "help the individual" instead of punishing people and "trying to help them."



When he tries to report me, mods please realize that I'm only keeping this about the forum and his ideas on things that he has made public.  Actually, as you'll see, it's really only about this post.

Maybe you live in a sheltered world in your community with no internet access, but there has been 174 heroin overdoses in six days in Cincinnati, and that's not including the fact that there's been people killed by people who were driving and overdosing.  I'd say that's a pretty big threat to other people and not just themselves.

You can't just treat everyone like they're the victim and like everyone deserves to be pampered, which is a common theme for you because you need to start holding people accountable, which jail is about the only source of hope for that and a place that can keep drugs out of their hands.

(08-28-2016, 10:57 AM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: Another wreck on the highway yesterday. Thanks to the good ole people driving around on heroin. I consider that a threat to other people. I also read an older article that was saying the majority of of people who OD and get medical attention dont end up speaking to police. So of the 100+ that ODed the last few days. Many have zero legal repercussions to fear. Does that really make sense?