Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 21, 1994 TAG: 9407210102
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER NOTE: below
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Last week, the Roanoke Valley Drug and Alcohol Abuse Council issued a warning saying three Roanoke Valley residents died after ingesting an extremely potent form of heroin.
The council, which is comprised of governmental, social services and law enforcement officials from throughout the valley, said the heroin used was about six times stronger than the customary street purity.
While law enforcement officials from Roanoke, Roanoke County and Salem say their records won't back up the claims, some council members stood by their assertions.
Judge Philip Trompeter, the council's chairman, said because the information came to them through confidential informants, he would not respond to the other agencies' claims. The council, which works toward better drug and alcohol treatment and prevention, wanted to alert the public of the danger, Trompeter said.
Roanoke County Police Chief John Cease, an executive member of the council, said that information from the heroin-addict community has pointed to a "significantly higher" purity of the drug.
"We may not have all the facts, but there's enough there to merit telling people that they need to be concerned," he said.
But Dr. David Oxley, the region's medical examiner, said his office has not found that heroin caused any deaths in a number of years. Currently, his office has three cases where the cause of death may be drug overdoses, but he did not know if heroin was the drug involved. Toxicology tests had not been completed as of Wednesday.
Each of the cases occurred last month. Two cases were men found dead in their Roanoke city homes, and the third case was an inmate found dead in his cell at the Keen Mountain correctional facility in Buchanan County, more than 100 miles from Roanoke.
Henry Altice, a former heroin addict and now director of Hegira House, a Roanoke substance-abuse clinic, said the drug council was made aware of the two Roanoke city cases. He said that he is almost certain the deaths occurred from heroin.
"If we waited six months before we say it happened, how many lives would we have jeopardized?" Altice said. "We have an obligation as professionals working with the addict community to let them know that ... the potential is there, that it's been seen in other [cities] and those [involved] with drugs should take heed."
State forensic technicians said they are analyzing more heroin samples than usual. The laboratory examines drug samples from law enforcement agencies in 34 counties from the Western Virginia area.
Lab director Steven Sigel said that his department usually sees about one heroin case a month and is analyzing about eight cases a month. Sigel also said that the heroin purity level only has reached about 20 percent, about one-third of the purity claimed by the drug council.
Roanoke City Police Chief M. David Hooper, who was absent from the council when the report was released, said that he could not verify the heroin purity levels claimed by the council. He added that he was unaware of any heroin deaths in the city.
Statistics from local hospitals indicate that there have been at least four patients treated for heroin overdoses at Roanoke Memorial Hospital. A spokeswoman was unable to confirm if any of those cases resulted in deaths.
Roanoke County police say they are seeing a higher quality of heroin, but that there have been no officially determined deaths from the drug.
Sgt. Chuck Mason said police suspected that one death in the county might have been caused by heroin, but the medical examiner ruled it as a death by natural causes.
Mason also said that traditionally the heroin market had not thrived in the county, but in the last year officers have arrested four individuals for trafficking the drug. That's the most in recent years, he said.
Roanoke Vice Lt. B.S. Lugar said he has seen no increase in the number of city heroin cases. Lugar said that the city has arrested about six people a year on heroin charges.
by CNB