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Drugs cause area teens’ deaths |
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Wednesday, 12 March 2008 |
From WDN staff reports
Two Waynesfield teens reportedly died from a drug overdose composed primarily of heroin, but law enforcement officials are seeking additional tests to see if impurities in the heroin may be the cause.
Auglaize County Coroner Dr. Thomas Freytag reported Jesse Hicks, 19, of Lakeview, and Katreena Latimore, 17, of McGuffey, died from drug overdoses when they were found in an upstairs apartment in Waynesfield on Feb. 16.
The apartment at 108 E. Ohio St. was being rented by D. Allen Poe III, who found the pair Saturday morning after returning home from work at Plasti-Pak of Jackson Center.
Freytag confirmed heroin as the main drug in their system, but the coroner has requested additional tests be completed by the toxicology lab at the Lucas County Coroner’s Office.
Freytag said he has concerns regarding chemicals may have contributed to the teens death, which appear to be similar to deaths in Hardin and Logan counties.
“We all think we’re seeing more mixed opiate drug overdoses,” Freytag told the Wapakoneta Daily News Wednesday morning. “We’re seeing this on a statewide level.”
Freytag said the drug is often mixed with prescription drugs to make it more potent.
“They spice it up with something that’s low cost, and the user will get more of a buzz, more of a high, so they’ll go back to this (dealer) to get more,” Freytag said.
The county coroner said at this time there appears to be no signs of foul play, but if further toxicology reports show the heroin was intentionally laced with a harmful substance, the deaths could potentially be considered a homicide.
“It’s like if somebody sold you a beer, and it had a date rape drug in it, you could say they intended to cause harm,” Freytag said.
Freytag said Latimore, a senior at Upper Scioto Valley High School, was a known heroin user with a history of drug-related charges in the juvenile court system.
Davis joined the military after high school, so information on his drug usage was not as readily available.
He said Ohio coroners hope to develop a database to determine whether deaths related to mixed opiate overdoses is a statewide trend.
“If it is, we need to go to state medical board and state pharmacy board so a doctor writing a prescription can check whether the person has gotten the prescription somewhere else,” Freytag said.
Auglaize County Sheriff Al Solomon said he could not comment specifically on the case involving the two teens, but he said the Grand Lake Task Force has seen somewhat of an increase in heroin usage, as well as crack cocaine, over the past few years.
“The task force is always looking into those directions, along with our detectives and police departments,” Solomon said.
Managing Editor William Laney and Staff Writer Annie Zelm contributed to this story. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 13 March 2008 )
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