Heroin OD spike from weekend continues

A man was found dead from a suspected heroin overdose Wednesday afternoon in a van parked outside the Avondale Rally's, police said.

That apparent overdose death continued the spike of OD reports Cincinnati police and fire departments responded to since the weekend, and marked the 12th reported overdose of the day, according to Lt. Steve Saunders.

The incident brought the total count of heroin overdoses since Tuesday to 33.

Saunders said several of the overdoses were grouped on individual streets throughout the west side. He said none of Tuesday's overdoses were fatal.

Saunders later said police conducted 21 overdose runs on Tuesday alone. Officials are investigating to see if a specific source of heroin is tainted or cut with something causing drug users to overdose.

"This has been generalized on the west side of the Cincinnati but it does not mean this compound is not in other areas," police officials stated in a news release Tuesday.

OD threat rises as antidote fails to work first time

Police are warning anyone who may be using intravenous drugs to be aware of this increased danger.

"The Cincinnati Police Department is working to identify commonalities in the overdoses in an effort to determine the source of this dangerous drug currently being circulated," the news release said.

Police are asking anyone with information that could be helpful to the investigation to call Crime Stoppers at 352-3040.

The Hamilton County Heroin Coalition on Monday reported a spike over the weekend, beginning Friday, with more than 30 overdoses at area hospitals and warned both officials and the public.

The coalition alerted additional police, emergency responders, hospitals, treatment centers and others so that they could get additional naloxone and be prepared for overdoses.

Newtown Police Chief Tom Synan, who heads the coalition's law enforcement task force, said he received word of 19 overdoses in the area on Tuesday.

Synan said the spike is similar to that experienced several weeks ago in Akron and Columbus, when carfentanil was identified in the heroin stream on the streets there. Carfentanil is a synthetic opiate used by veterinarians who care for large wildlife animals including elephants. While the Hamilton County law enforcement also found evidence of carfentanil in heroin here, Synan said it's too soon to know what was causing the overdoses on Tuesday.

"We have no idea, really, what's causing this at this point, if it's carfentanil, fentanyl or something else in this particular batch of heroin," he said.

Generally, the Hamilton County Heroin Coalition has charted about 20 to 25 overdoses, with one or two deaths, in a week. The most Synan had seen was about six or seven deaths with 16 overdoses one week. He added, "we've gone as long as three weeks with none."

Synan said the coalition's ability to get the information straight to the law enforcement and medical providers in the area is key to helping curb the overdoses.

"This is the pure example of why we put this coalition together: To save lives and make a difference."