By GAYLA CAWLEY
LYNN — After a weekend of three fatal apparent opioid overdoses in Lynn, police responded to another one on Monday morning.
Lynn Police Lt. Rick Donnelly said police responded to Union Hospital at approximately 11:15 a.m. for an overdose. He said some people dropped off a 22-year-old woman at the hospital who had apparently overdosed and was dead.
“It’s still under investigation, but we’re treating it as a heroin overdose,” Donnelly said.
Three people died from apparent heroin overdoses between Friday morning and Sunday morning, outpacing the two fatalities the city had in January. In February, with Monday’s fatal suspected overdose, there have been 13 overdoses, with four fatalities. In January, Lynn had 26 overdoses and two of those were fatal, Donnelly said.
Over the weekend, Essex County had seven fatal apparent overdoses, including two in Peabody and the three in Lynn. There was also one fatal apparent overdose apiece in Lawrence and Haverhill.
Before the weekend, there was a fatal apparent overdose this month on Feb. 1 in Methuen. With Lynn’s death on Monday, Essex County has at least nine fatalities from apparent opioid overdoses this month. That’s more than half of the 16 reported in the county in January.
Lynn Police Lt. Christopher Kelly said on Sunday that the department is trying to get the word out to addicts and families of addicts that overdoses typically come in waves, based on a particular batch of heroin or fentanyl.
Lynn Police Sgt. Rick Carrow, of the Drug Task Force, said he’s seeing more overdoses with straight fentanyl, which is 100 times stronger than the heroin seen on the streets.
“That’s why people are dropping,” Carrow said.
Carrow said users might want to get the best bang for their buck by using fentanyl. He said heroin is the natural opiate and fentanyl is the synthetic opiate. In these cases, his educated guess would be that the fatalities are from fentanyl.
In some cases, Carrow said users might not be aware that they’re buying fentanyl. Following up on nonfatal overdoses, he said users might say they noticed the color was a little different or the high was different.
“They’re playing with the suicide mission if they don’t know, in fact, what they’re taking,” he said. “In some cases, when they don’t get the Narcan (the lifesaving overdose drug) in time, it’s done.”
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Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley
