NJ.com - Toms River police report 3 heroin OD’s in 12 hours

5/22/2014

heroin-Wikipedia-Commons.JPG
Toms River police responded to three separate heroin overdoses over a 12-hour period from Wednesday night into this morning, they said. (Wikipedia Commons)

Seth Augenstein/The Star-LedgerBy Seth Augenstein/The Star-Ledger 
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on May 22, 2014 at 10:29 AM, updated May 22, 2014 at 11:01 AM

TOMS RIVER — Three people overdosed on heroin over a 12-hour period from Wednesday night into this morning, local police said.

Detectives are determining if the brands of heroin were the same – or if the drugs in each of the three cases came from a similar distribution network, authorities added.

“Three overdoses in 12 hours raises eyebrows,” said Ralph Stocco, a spokesman for the Toms River Police Department. “We’re not sure if they’re linked – but we’re looking at the possibility.”

A 26-year-old woman was reported unresponsive at an OakRidge Parkway address by her boyfriend just before 6 p.m., Stocco said.

A little more than a half hour later, a 24-year-old man was reported unconscious in the parking lot of the Office Lounge on Main Street, authorities said.

This morning a 32-year-old man was found unresponsive in his bed at the Sun and Sand Motel on Route 37, Stocco said. Emergency workers responded at 6:35 a.m., he added.

All three overdose victims were saved through the use of Narcan, a drug introduced this year by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, after a record-setting 112 people died of overdoses in 2013. Toms River police also report saving two lives in the previous two weeks using the same drug.

The Sun and Sand Motel was the site of a drug search last week as a series of people were pulled over in their cars and charged with dealing heroin, authorities said at the time.

No charges have been filed in any of the overdoses as of Thursday morning, Stocco added.