3 Heroin Overdoses in 7 Hours Keep Detectives Racing

Heroin overdoses are apparently responsible in three deaths within seven hours in Oakland County Wednesday, and detectives are investigating whether the suspected substance had been cut with an inferior substance.

The deaths are the latest indicator of what county and state officials call a growing problem with heroin abuse, long thought to be a plague of inner cities. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in April that heroin use increased more than 300 percent in the last year and is an “equal opportunity killer” that cuts across social and economic lines.

In one of the Wednesday cases, all of them in Pontiac, deputies had to force themselves into a residence after getting a report of a 32-year-old woman slumped over her kitchen sink and found a baby upstairs in a bedroom, according to sheriff’s office reports.

After a medical evaluation at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, the infant was turned over to family members.

That call, at about 10:30 p.m., capped off a busy late afternoon and evening for investigators.

The first heroin-related call came in about 3:30 p.m. Police discovered a 31-year-old man dead in a front bedroom.

A second call came about 4:45 p.m., when police responded to Woodward Avenue and South Boulevard after receiving a report of a man slumped over in a pickup in a McDonald’s restaurant parking lot.

A witness said he man had been sitting in his pickup talking to someone in a nearby car, and moments later was slumped over and unresponsive. The victim, 24, had previously overdosed, police said.

In each of the calls, police seized substances believed to be heroin. In two of them, they also collected hypodermic needles and other paraphernalia as evidence.

Autopsies will be conducted.

Data compiled by the Michigan Department of Community Health show heroin overdose deaths increased to 728 in 2010-2012, up from 271 from 1999-2002, The Oakland Press reports. The data also show enrollment in publicly funded heroin treatment programs doubled to 13,600 in 2013 from 6,500 in 2002.

Oakland County officials said there were 59 heroin-related deaths in 2013, but said that number could be larger because the drug breaks down quickly in the body and can’t always be traced in autopsies.

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Patch file photo