Clifton sees six heroin deaths in six weeks

CLIFTON — Six people died of heroin overdoses in the six weeks between Dec. 8 and Jan 16, city police said.

The first death came on Dec. 8, when the victim was a 35-year-old woman, Detective Lt. Robert Bracken said. That was followed by the death of a 31-year-old woman on Dec. 20.

Next, two days into the new year, a 32-year-old woman was found dead. On Jan. 8, a man, 33, died, followed on Jan. 13 by another 33-year-old man. Most recently, a 20-year-old woman died on Jan. 16. All the deaths were attributed to heroin overdoses, said Bracken, who did not have authority from the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office to reveal the victims' names or any other identifying information.

"We are not starting the year off right, as far as I am concerned," Bracken said. In some cases, he said, an effort was made to save the victims by using naloxone, which can reverse the effects of opioids.

One woman "got her heart rate back," he said, but she ended up dying.

A pace of one death per week would give Clifton, with a population around 86,000, one of the highest opioid mortality rates in the nation. However, overdoses tend to come in clusters, Bracken said.

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Clifton Fire Chief Kevin McCarthy said in the week between Christmas and New Year's, his department also experienced a rash of naloxone deployments. He said that can happen when there's a bad batch of heroin on the streets. However, there's no indication that that's the case.

St. Mary's General Hospital emergency room medical director Dr. Raghu Varma was not surprised by the number of deaths.

"In the last two years, I can say I have seen a lot more overdoses," Varma said. He attributes the increases to a wider availability of heroin and strong opioids, like fetanyl, and a broader range of users: old, young, suburbanite, city dwellers and all socioeconomic statuses.

Moreover, he said, naxolone, while a good way keep the patient alive, does nothing to curb addiction. Appropriate follow-up treatment is necessary.

Opioid deaths have been soaring nationwide in recent years, with the National Center for Health Statistics, a federal agency, reporting 63,600 overdose deaths in 2016, most involving opioids. New Jersey, with more than 1,900 opioid deaths in 2016, saw a 42 percent rise in drug overdose deaths from 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bracken did not have figures for Clifton for 2017, although he said police administered naloxone about 20 times. Tallying deaths in the city in 2017 is tricky for police. Some people die later in the hospital, and it takes time for toxicology reports to be returned.

"It's never official to the medical examiner until the toxicology reports come in," Bracken said.

Still, police usually don't need toxicology reports to figure out what happened. Officers on the scene gather observations and witness accounts and find paraphernalia left at the scene, he said.

The CDC reports that "overdoses from prescription opioids are a driving factor in the 16-year increase in opioid overdose deaths." Addicts, when they can no longer get prescription drugs, turn to buying street drugs like heroin and increasingly fentanyl, a synthetic opioid more powerful than heroin.

The increased use of fetanyl has made naxolone less effective. So much so that in the fall, then-Gov. Chris Christie authorized first responders to double the dosage.

On average, 115 Americans die every day from opioid overdoses and about 1,000 are treated in emergency rooms, the CDC has reported.

Bracken said the department's juvenile bureau is working on developing a program to teach teens about the dangers of opioid abuse.

He said the program will be modeled on those created by other departments and will include former users who will speak to older teens. Bracken said it will be ongoing.

"It won't be one assembly and then say bye," he said.

Email: fagan@northjersey.com