Fentanyl-heroin mix kills

Sarah Karush reports for the AP (May 27) on "a mixture of heroin and a powerful painkiller has been killing users who believe they are taking heroin alone." Link here.

In Wayne County [Michigan], which includes Detroit, Medical Examiner Carl J. Schmidt said he began noticing a rise in fentanyl-related deaths in September. In total, medical examiners found 63 people who died in Wayne County with fentanyl in their blood last year. From the beginning of 2006 to mid-April, there were 70 such cases.

County officials did not begin treating fentanyl as a crisis until last week, when the number of overdoses began to soar.