(May 5, 2016), With the recent rise in the visibility and severity of the heroin epidemic in Worcester County, police officers in Berlin and Ocean Pines have received training to administer naloxone, a drug used to treat heroin overdoses.
In Ocean Pines, Police Chief Dave Massey said that training has helped save two lives in the community.
Massey said overdoses often occur when the heroin is either combined with another substance, such as alcohol, or when the drug itself is laced.
“What we’ve seen is some fentanyl-laced heroin that’s all up and down the Eastern Shore, most of which comes out of Philadelphia,” he said.
In other instances, extreme dosages, or ones the body is not used to, can contribute to an overdose. That’s apparently what happened recently in Ocean City, when an addict who had gotten clean tried to get high one last time, but overdosed and died.
“What happens is, people have substance abuse heroin addiction and get cleaned up, and then they come back and think they can take the same amount of dosage they did when they stopped, and it’s an overdose,” Massey said. “Typically, what we’re seeing is people dying from those overdoses.”
Massey several heroin-related deaths occurred in Ocean Pines last year. This year, so far, he said there have been none.
“I’m keeping my fingers crossed,” he said.