Heroin overdose has been one predicament the country is facing in recent years. In Chicago, 74 people overdosed on heroin in just 72 hours and officials are tracing the probable source of the dangerous drugs.
Drug poisoning is the number one cause of injury-related death in the United States, with 43,982 deaths occurring in 2013, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A recent study using data from 28 states reported that the death rate for heroin overdose doubled from 2010 through 2012.
Heroin when mixed with alcohol can be deadly. This is the cause of death of many teens including celebrities in the past years. However, though much attention has been given to the campaign against heroin, the rates of overdose are still increasing.
Though Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford told ABC News that the cases were non-fatal overdoses from Tuesday night to Friday night, this is still alarming.
Chicago Tribune reported that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration searched West Side to identify the cause of the overdoses and two men were arrested. Alfonzo Sylvester, 24, and Mario Wofford, 26, both gang members, sold over $720 worth of heroin to an undercover police officer on the West Side on Friday.
Sylvester appeared in the Leighton Criminal Court Building on Sunday over charges of possession of heroin with the intent to deliver and aggravated fleeing and eluding police. According to the officials' investigation, the drugs could have been heroin mixed with a potent painkiller, fentanyl.
One death was also reported and they are now investigating if it was associated with the deadly concoction the two suspects have sold. However, in their latest update, no death was reported linked to the outbreak and patients were advised to double or triple the dose of the heroin antidote.
