Trumbull coroner: Overdosing by seniors result of 60s Gen turning 60

FOWLER

Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, Trumbull County coroner, says people often ask him whether overdose deaths are the result of a “bad batch” of heroin. He frequently has to explain that it’s actually the reverse.

“There’s no such thing as bad heroin, just better heroin or dumb people,” he said Thursday during a presentation to the Trumbull County Township Trustees Association.

What he means is that many of the overdose deaths he sees involve people who have recently gone through drug rehab or a jail stint, and their body has been “flushed clean of the drug.”

But what some addicts do is use the same amount of the drug that they used right before they were arrested or their rehab, and their body can’t handle it.

In other cases, someone uses heroin that is, for instance, 5 percent pure, but a new supplier in town gives them a dose that is 10 percent pure.

“I’ve just doubled my dosage,” Dr. Germaniuk said, speaking at the Fowler United Methodist Church on Youngstown-Kingsville Road. And that can lead to a “spike” in deaths.

“One weekend about three weekends ago, I had four on a Saturday,” he said. “The youngest was 33, the oldest was 73.”

“Why are we seeing it in 50- and 60- and 70-year-old people? Because the Sixties Generation has turned 60,” he said.

Read more about the problem in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.