http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060927/NEWS01/609270310/1002
Overdose death leads to Muncie teen's arrest
MUNCIE -- An investigation into the death of a young man in an apparent overdose this week led to the arrest of his drug dealer, according to authorities.
Thomas Lee Saunders Jr., 20, was discovered lifeless Monday morning at a friend's house in the 200 block of North Pershing Street with a fentanyl patch on his left shoulder, according to police reports.
Later that day police arrested Joshua Corwin, 18, 610 S. Council St., on preliminary charges of dealing in a schedule II controlled substance, a class B felony carrying a standard 10-year prison term, and possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor.
Fentanyl is a painkiller that is 80 more times potent than morphine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. The drug is available in a patch, much like a nicotine patch, that illegal users sometimes chew or melt and inject intravenously for an instant high, according to area coroners.
Fentanyl abuse became apparent in Delaware County in 2003 when the drug claimed the lives of four people in six months and nearly killed two Eaton teenagers.
Fentanyl-related deaths have resurfaced sporadically since then, Delaware County Coroner James Clevenger said.
"Fentanyl is kind of the new problem we are being faced with," Clevenger said.
The coroner estimated he has investigated about 12 fentanyl-related deaths in the past five years, including two or three this year.
Those numbers are comparable to overdoses attributed to more commonly known street and prescription drugs such as cocaine, heroin and Valium, Clevenger said.
Blackford County Coroner Tod Waters said illegal fentanyl use is part of an increasing prescription drug problem. He has investigated nine accidental fatal drug overdoses in 30 months and almost all involved combinations of prescription drugs.
Clevenger has not made an official ruling in Saunders's death, but an autopsy ruled out all possible causes of death except overdose, he said.
Saunders had also been drinking, Clevenger said. It is unknown whether alcohol or other drugs aside from fentanyl also might have contributed to the death.
"We do suspect that illegal drug use was the cause of this young man's death," Clevenger said. "That has not been proven until I get lab work back. But we have pretty much ruled everything else out."
The probable cause affidavit for Corwin's arrest said Corwin admitted to selling both marijuana and a fentanyl patch to Saunders on Saturday.
A friend of Saunders led police to Corwin, according to reports.
While serving a search warrant on Corwin's residence, police reported finding hydrocodone and marijuana.
Corwin was being held without bond Tuesday in the Delaware County jail.
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