Warren officer: Heroin problem is ‘out of control’
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A veteran Warren police officer who witnessed two heroin overdoses involving three people within two hours of each other Monday afternoon said the overdose problem is “out of control.”
Officials say Trumbull County could be headed for a record number of overdose deaths if the current pace keeps up.
Sgt. Greg Coleman and other officers responded to a home in the 300 block Freeman Street Northwest at 3:24 p.m. for a male unresponsive in the bedroom.
Officers found a capped hypodermic needle by the man’s arm. Nearby were three burned metal spoons and a loaded needle of heroin.
Ambulance personnel arrived and administered the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, then transported him to ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital.
Drug-possession charges are possible after lab results are conducted, police said.
At 5:03 p.m., Coleman and other officers were called to a home in the 900 block of Palmyra Road Southwest for a report of two men slouched over in a motor vehicle. One of the men, 33, of Warren, became responsive.
The other male, 32, of Cortland, had to be revived with naloxone, and spoke with officers, then was transported to TMH.
The man who was revived had a folded-up piece of paper in his pocket in a small plastic bag containing a brown powder substance, suspected of being heroin, police said.
Charges are possible on the man with the suspected heroin after lab results are complete, police said.
“Essentially, all we are there to do is clean it up and determine what happened,” Coleman said, adding he has no idea what police can do about the overdose problem in the area.
“I’d say we have a lot of overdoses right now. I can’t say why.”
Another officer said he believes the number of overdoses may be related to different potencies of the drug being sold in the area.
Trumbull County had 54 overdose deaths in 2014, 36 of them being attributed to heroin or a combination of heroin and other drugs, according to the Trumbull County coroner’s office.
The next highest accidental drug overdose total was in 2007, when there were 64.