By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Local firefighters and paramedics have been talking among themselves, wondering what’s up with drug overdoses.
In Centralia, Assistant Fire Chief Mike Kytta said responders have dealt with emergencies recently, including a pair of individuals at the same residence.
“Within the last week, we’ve answered three EMS calls for patients that may or may not have been attributed to heroin overdoses,” Kytta said on Wednesday. “We can’t say in the field for sure, the hospital will do that.”
None of them were reported to have subsequently died.
Paramedics can and do use a drug called Narcan that quickly counteracts the effects of depressants, according to Kytta.
“Within a matter of literally minutes, you’ll see an unconscious, unresponsive person start to awaken and their respiration will increase; they’ll appear relatively normal,” Kytta said.
The three cases Kytta spoke of all occurred last Friday and Saturday, and if indeed they were all related to heroin, that would be a high occurrence rate in a short period of time, he said.
Kytta, the assistant chief for Riverside Fire Authority which covers the greater Centralia area, said he wasn’t able to talk in much more detail about their medical calls.
A Centralia Police Department spokesperson said this week he was aware of one recent case where the fire department was called to what might have been a drug overdose. Officer John Panco said police wouldn’t necessarily be able to say if there was more than the usual number of incidents, as the fire department handles them.
Centralia police Sgt. Jim Shannon, who supervises the department’s drug enforcement team, said heroin use in the area is definitely on the rise.
“Methadone is big as well,” Shannon said.
Shannon said Oxycontin was very popular for a long time and a lot of young people got hooked.
All three drugs are central nervous system depressants and users may prefer one, but might choose another depending on availability, according to Shannon. Oxycontin has become harder to come by, he said.
What he and his officers find in Centralia is black tar heroin, he said.
“It’s readily available, it cheaper, it’s easier to get,” Shannon said.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
If this is a dramatic increase concerning heroin overdose, I would suspect a new dealer in town or a new supplier (of resident dealers) with more potent dope to entice users to buy from this “entrepreneur”.
Kind of like a loss-leader at WalMart, only deadlier.