WASHINGTON — A super-potent heroin being sold by Mexican traffickers is contributing to a spike in overdoses across America, an Associated Press study shows.
AP reports that the heroin, known as “black tar” heroin because of its dark gooey texture — and other forms are causing problems and selling for as little as $10 a bag.
“We found people who snorted it lying face-down with the straw lying next to them,” Patrick O’Neil, coroner in suburban Chicago’s Will County, where annual heroin deaths have nearly tripled – from 10 to 29 – since 2006, told the Associated Press. “It’s so potent that we occasionally find the needle in the arm at the death scene.”
The potency has also enabled people to snort or smoke it and avoid the needle, AP reported.
“That has opened up heroin to a whole different group of users,” Harry Sommers, who heads the DEA in St. Louis told AP.
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