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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers
Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
Last seen: 7 months, 21 days
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"Free Heroin" Knocks out Junkies around Chicago
#5519277 - 04/15/06 02:36 PM (17 years, 11 months ago) |
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http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-heroin15.html
Quote:
West Side junkies lined up single file Friday morning in an alley near Cermak and Keeler for a "pass out" -- a free taste of the latest batch of heroin to hit the street.
"They do it all the time. Dealers give it away. It's like when Wal-Mart is having a sale," a neighbor said. "It brings in customers."
By lunchtime, dopers were passed out in public all over the place.
A mechanic at J&S Auto Glass and Tire Shop "starting acting messed up, like he couldn't hear," and then crumbled to the sidewalk, shop owner Marvin Jackson said.
At noon, paramedics responded to a call in the 4100 block of West 21st Place, where three people were "out of it," suffering overdoses or the effects of tainted dope. Police are awaiting lab tests of drug residue.
Authorities scoured the area and found four more people -- including the auto mechanic -- unconscious in plain sight.
All seven were treated with an anti-narcotic, shipped to nearby hospitals, and were reportedly in good condition, Fire Department officials said.
For dope dealers, the bodies lying in the street were good advertising.
"People getting knocked out lets people know the dope must be good," said neighbor Booker T. Winston, an ex-heroin addict.
"And they know where they can find it, that fire. Stuff that has you fading out, feeling like a zombie."
In a few days, locals said they expect people to flock to that same alley looking for that same batch of heroin -- even though police are passing out fliers as warnings.
'You're putting yourself at risk'
"This is an open drug market, been that way for years. [Drug users] will wait until the heat goes down and be here looking for the stuff," said a neighbor who did not want to be identified, fearing gang retaliation.
"It's sad, but that's what's going on here."
Police Supt. Phil Cline blamed the Friday overdoses on gangs trying to move into another drug dealer's turf. It's a situation similar to a rash of overdoses a couple of weeks ago, but police said they don't think the same dealer is involved.
Seven overdoses in a three-block area should be a cautionary tale, not positive PR for drug trafficking. On the street, you never know what you might get, Cline warned.
"It could be too potent. It could be that it's not heroin -- that it's a substitute drug or it could be laced with something else. ... There's no OSHA; there's no FDA. You're putting yourself at risk," he said.
Friday afternoon, three squad cars circled the corner of South Lawndale. One officer told neighbors they were looking for a man named Omar who they think was handing out drugs that morning.
"Man, it's the West Side," neighbor James Taylor said. "It's wild out here."
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
Edited by Madtowntripper (04/15/06 02:36 PM)
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Asante
Omnicyclion prophet
Registered: 02/06/02
Posts: 87,295
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Re: "Free Heroin" Knocks out Junkies around Chicago [Re: Madtowntripper]
#5520279 - 04/16/06 05:57 AM (17 years, 11 months ago) |
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A heroin that sends most/all seasoned junkies on a deep nod..
I sure hope it isn't a fentanyl derivative.
-------------------- Omnicyclion.org higher knowledge starts here
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abrad84
Stranger
Registered: 10/15/05
Posts: 1,128
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Re: "Free Heroin" Knocks out Junkies around Chicago [Re: Asante]
#5540314 - 04/21/06 08:19 AM (17 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
Wiccan_Seeker said:
I sure hope it isn't a fentanyl derivative.
Looks like it is...
Quote:
New rash of deadly heroin overdoses
By Josh Noel, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporter Jason Meisner contributed to this report Published April 21, 2006
As word circulated this week of people passing out from potent heroin on Chicago's South Side, drug users didn't recoil with fear, police said.
They turned out in droves for a taste.
By the end of Wednesday, 25 people between the ages of 17 and 73 had overdosed, including a 51-year-old woman who died at her home.
"It's a sad commentary when people are racing to a place they know may overdose them," Police Supt. Philip Cline said Thursday.
With 66 heroin overdoses since August, including 11 deaths, police announced they are teaming with federal officials to try disrupting the drug's flow into the city and to staunch the street deals plaguing the South and West Sides.
Though there are close to 250 fatal drug overdoses in Chicago every year, officials said, incidents involving heroin are becoming more concentrated. Fifteen of Wednesday's overdoses happened near the Ida B. Wells public housing complex. In February, 10 people died near the Dearborn Homes after taking heroin that, authorities said, was cut with Fentanyl, a prescription drug often used in anesthesia.
Though Fentanyl is believed to be contributing to most of the heroin overdoses, Cline said, it is unclear if the drugs passed out Wednesday were cut with the substance or if they were simply extremely potent doses.
What is known about Wednesday's outbreak is that samples were being given out in pink baggies in the 500 block of East Browning Avenue and at 64th Street and Ashland Avenue, Cline said.
Officers arrested seven people suspected of distributing the drugs, including someone bragging to locals that he would "have some good stuff to pass out," Cline said. Charges have not been filed.
"All of these incidents have one thing in common: gangs and gang turf," Cline said.
On Wednesday, Alberta Morris was found about 4:15 p.m. at her home in the 7000 block of South Racine Avenue, police said. Morris was pronounced dead at 9:40 p.m. Wednesday by the Cook County medical examiner's office.
It is unclear when or where she obtained her drugs, Cline said, but her story was invoked as officials cautioned against buying drugs or taking free samples.
"What you think you are buying and what you are actually getting are two very different things," said Terry Mason, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health. "You're completely at the mercy of the person who sold you or gave you the drug."
Fentanyl is about 100 times more potent than heroin, Mason said, causing spasms in the rib cage that can prevent breathing. Officials believe heroin is coming into Chicago already cut with Fentanyl.
Dan Bigg, director of the Chicago Recovery Alliance, said it is common for people to flock to potent drugs because they expect they can handle the strength while getting an extreme and cost-effective high.
"If you're out there trying to sustain a habit, the more milligrams of heroin you can get, the better off you'll be," Bigg said.
Though people passing out might seem like an obvious reason to stay away, they are actually good advertising for the dealers, he said.
"It doesn't take much effort to get a little Fentanyl and see people pass out and get some publicity. And all [dealers] care about is the publicity," Bigg said.
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Infrared
sleeping
Registered: 07/15/02
Posts: 12,988
Loc: Chicago, USA
Last seen: 2 years, 2 months
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Re: "Free Heroin" Knocks out Junkies around Chicago [Re: Asante]
#5540988 - 04/21/06 12:59 PM (17 years, 11 months ago) |
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oh its fentanyl.. i knew that as soon as i heard about tainted heroin making people OD
-------------------- When chemistry is outlawed.. Only outlaws have chemistry
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GGreatOne234
Stranger
Registered: 12/23/99
Posts: 8,946
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Re: "Free Heroin" Knocks out Junkies around Chicago [Re: Madtowntripper]
#5547563 - 04/23/06 02:15 PM (17 years, 11 months ago) |
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i used to go to the west side of chicago for smack
its a drug wasteland
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