Derby and Shelton police are trying to find the source of the heroin thought to have killed two men and triggered two other overdoses this week.
Two men died in Derby died from suspected overdoses 12 hours apart Wednesday. Two people in Shelton overdosed Tuesday but survived.
The victims in the Derby cases were a 23-year-old man and a 39-year-old man.
EMS and police responded to a medical call about 5 a.m. Wednesday at the residence of the 23-year-old man at 156 Hawthorne Ave. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The 39-year-old man was found dead in his apartment at 10 Summit St. about 5:15 p.m.
The two addresses are about 1,000 feet apart. It’s not known whether the two Derby victims knew each other.
Heroin is suspected to have caused both deaths. Police found drug paraphernalia at the scenes. The items will be sent to a lab for analysis.
The deaths prompted Derby police to issue a warning Wednesday. Police are worried the heroin circulating lately is especially potent.
It could have ingredients that differ from what normally circulates.
There were no additional overdoses reported as of Thursday afternoon.
The state’s medical examiner Thursday did not issue a cause or manner of death for the two Derby residents. Investigators are waiting for the results of toxicology tests.
Area police are talking to each other to see if there is a common thread between the deaths and recent overdoses in the Valley.
“We will gather intelligence and talk to other agencies to compare packaging. What kind of bags were they in? Were they stamped? Did they have logos on them?” Derby Police Lt. Justin Stanko said. “Obviously, the ultimate goal is to find the source, meaning the dealer.”
Drug overdoses, particularly opioid overdoses, are on the rise in the state — to the point where state and federal lawmakers have noticed. Two forums on the subject are scheduled in Derby and Shelton next month.
Those who witness what happens when drug use turns deadly said they’ve felt the increase locally.
“I can say comfortably that there has been a rise in heroin-related ODs, whether it is fatal or nonfatal,” Stanko said.
Louis Oliwa is the chief of the Derby Storm Engine Co. Ambulance and Rescue Corps.
He said emergency responders are wondering whether the arrival of the drug Narcan is having an unintended effect.
Narcan is a heavily hyped drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose — literally bringing people back to life moments after a person has taken his or her last breath after an overdose, according to medics interviewed for this article.
With Narcan becoming more available, and public awareness of the drug so intense, he’s worried there is a false sense of security among drug users.
“It makes me nervous because it could be that people think they are invincible. If they get high and something happens, it’s OK, because the ambulance will come and save their lives,” Oliwa said.
Narcan has to be administered fairly quickly, Oliwa pointed out. People are still dying from overdoses.
Oliwa’s concerns are not unique.
Last year fire chiefs in New Hampshire worried Narcan was becoming a crutch for drug addicts, because emergency responders were using the drug on repeat customers.
Firefighters there worried nothing was done to break the cycle of addiction.
They asked the state for money to incorporate drug counseling into fire departments. Click here for a story from the Associated Press.
Pamela Mautte is the director of the Valley Substance Abuse Action Council.
They’ve been fighting drug abuse for more than 25 years. Opioid abuse is worse than ever.
“Right now we have more people dying from overdoses than car accidents,” Mautte said Thursday. “Now that we’ve hit epidemic proportion, it is front and center.”
It’s not just a Valley problem.
“With this, there is no age barrier, there’s no socioeconomic barrier, there’s no race barrier,” Mautte said. “There’s folks that think ‘This isn’t in my community, this isn’t in my town.’ It’s in almost every community in Connecticut. This doesn’t discriminate.”
She said that often, heroin users begin with prescription painkillers and then move to harder drugs because they’re cheaper on the street — as little as $3 to $10 a bag — than pills are.
“No one wakes up in the morning and says ‘Hey, I want to be an addict,’” Mautte said. “Many of them went down that path from having the medication for a legitimate reason.”
Mautte pointed to the success of initiatives to lower tobacco use as a model to build on when tackling the heroin epidemic.
The entire community — police and other emergency responders, the medical community, schools, nonprofits, community service groups, governments, religious groups, and others — has to be involved to address the problem, Mautte said.
“That model is effective and has been effective,” she said. “I think if we utilize the same model with the opioid epidemic — when you have all those key players together and we’re working at it at a local level, the state level, and the national level, we know we’ll see change.”
For example, use of highly addictive tobacco among middle and high school students plunged statewide in the past decade. The number of adult smokers also decreased, albeit not as drastically.
Mautte pointed to recent steps taken by the state — making the overdose drug Narcan more widely available, for example — as evidence that more and more people in the community are taking note of the problem and trying to do more in terms of prevention.
But that’s only one piece of the puzzle, Mautte said, in an effort that has to involve everyone.
She pointed to other work ongoing — increasing training of pharmacists with Narcan, educating people about the dangers of prescription painkiller addiction, helping people understand they don’t often need the strongest painkillers, and spreading the word about drop boxes at local police departments where people can drop off old prescription meds, just to name a few.
“It’s all of those little steps that can help reverse the upward spike in what’s going on,” she said.
Mautte said it’s also encouraging to see local lawmakers take up the cause, and urged residents to attend upcoming forums scheduled by Shelton lawmakers March 3 and another forum hosted by state Rep. Theresa Conroy scheduled for March 29 at Griffin Hospital.
