Police in the region continued investigating a cluster of heroin-related overdoses in the region Tuesday.
James City County Police, York-Poquoson and Isle of Wight’s sheriff’s offices said they didn’t have any reports of heroin overdoses over the weekend.
“I agree heroin is becoming an issue at an alarming rate,” Isle of Wight Police spokesman Lt. T. Potter said Tuesday.
Authorities in New Kent and King and Queen counties said they didn’t have any reports of overdoses, but that it did not mean they didn’t have any during the same time frame.
Previously:
Another man overdosed on heroin Friday in Newport News, bringing the total to five overdoses and one fatality, police said.
Shortly before 8 p.m. Friday, a 34-year-old man overdosed on heroin in the area of Main Street and Jefferson Avenue, Newport News police spokeswoman Holly McPherson said.
He was the fifth heroin overdose on a night where emergency responders saw four men overdose in four hours. One man, a 23-year-old, died, McPherson said.
The man’s body was sent to the medical examiner’s office for an official cause of death.
“A cause of death has not been determined as of yet. The official cause of death may take some time if the medical examiner has to wait on toxicology results,” McPherson said.
Authorities are investigating whether the deaths are linked to heroin purchased between March 23 and 25 in the city, police said.
Heroin is a highly-addictive opioid drug derived from morphine but it’s two to four times stronger that the drug used by hospitals for pain management. It is sold as a white or brownish powder that user inject, inhale or smoke, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
The five overdoses in Newport News occurred in the north and central areas of the city. The victims were all men ranging in age from their early 20s to mid-40s, police said.
Authorities warned drug users Friday that heroin purchased that week could lead to an overdose or even death.
“The department’s Organized Crime Division is investigating these incidents. However, at this time we cannot say for certain that these incidents are connected besides the fact that all victims used heroin,” McPherson said in an e-mail Friday.
The Centers for Disease Control, which tracks drug overdose deaths, found that between 2002 and 2013, the rate of heroin-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled.
More than 8,200 people died from heroin overdoses in 2013, according to the agency’s most recent statistics.
