Cincinnati Police, the Coroner's Office and City officials are putting drug users and first responders on alert that there's another tainted batch of heroin back on the streets. Nine addicts died this weekend in Price Hill and Delhi Township."Ever played roulette? Because we don't know what you are going to get," Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco said at a Monday news conference.
Dr. Sammarco says it could be mixed with fetenil, carfentanil, ketamine or something else.
Chief Tom Synan with the Hamilton County Heroin Coalition told reporters, "We are a gerbil spinning on a wheel and that is what we are doing right now. And it's not a lack of effort or that we're not trying, and it's not a lack of minds. We need to look at this differently and we need the state to give us funding."
The Coalition plans to go to Columbus in March to ask for more money to deal with the heroin problem.
Treatment providers like Hamilton County's Addiction Services Council are being taxed. The Council helped 12 users Monday. In Ohio, to get treatment, call 513-281-7880. In Kentucky, it's 859-415-9280.
The Coalition urges family and friends of users to carry naloxone with them at all times to counteract the effects of heroin.
Just last summer, a tainted heroin supply caused eight people to fatally overdose.
The Justice Department charged one Elmwood Place couple with distribution. It is believed to be the first carfentanil trafficking case ever brought in the State of Ohio.
