Cincinnati sees ‘unprecedented’ 174 heroin overdoses in 6 days

The original numbers were startling enough — 30 heroin overdoses across Cincinnati in a single weekend.

Then they just kept climbing.

Another 78 overdoses and at least three deaths were reported during a 48hour period Tuesday and Wednesday.

And at the end of last week, after a six-day stretch of emergency room visits that exhausted first responders and their medical supplies, the overdose tally soared to a number health officials are calling “unprecedented”: 174.

Seeking drug’s source

On average, Cincinnati sees four overdose reports per day, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported, and usually no more than 20 or 25 in a given week.

But pure heroin is what’s responsible for that average. And that’s not what’s on the streets now, they say. The culprit responsible for the staggering number of 174 was likely heroin cut with the latest opioid boost meant to deliver consumers a stronger, extended high — carfentanil. That’s a tranquilizer for, among other large animals, elephants. It’s 100,000 times stronger than morphine.

Law enforcement officials have been unable to track down the source of the toxic cocktail, but believe the spate of overdoses could be caused by a single heroin batch laced with carfentanil.

State, local and federal authorities have mobilized across Hamilton County — home to Cincinnati — to investigate the source or sources, Newtown Police Chief Tom Synan told the Enquirer.

In other states

Additional heroin overdoses reported in the tristate area of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, plus New Jersey, tipped the total to 225-plus, according to broadcast reports.

In the same time period of the Cincinnati overdoses, 13 were reported in Jennings County, Ind., last Tuesday, 12 were reported on Wednesday in Montgomery County, Ky,, and 29 overdoses linked to free samples of heroin, marked with a Batman symbol, were reported between Tuesday and Thursday in Camden, N.J. That comes after 27 people overdosed on Aug. 15 in one town in West Virginia.