Boundary News
Bonners Ferry Police Notes
Nov 15, 2006, 15:42
Salt Lake learned that there was black-tar heroin in the city when a convenience store clerk reported an overdose death in their bathroom. The man had obviously succumbed within seconds of his lethal injection as the syringe was found next to the body and the tie-off-tube was still on the body.
That same afternoon we found a dead woman in an abandoned house just three blocks from this same convenience store. Her cause of death was the same: heroin overdose. Our addicts were used to ‘Mexican Brown’ at 4 - 8% purity. Because of the different extraction process, the black tar was coming in at 40% to 80% purity. This was no pharmaceutical drug so there was no way to be certain of what you were getting. The same $50 a day habit could kill you because the new product was up to ten times stronger.
The summer of 1999 was a tough time. During one six week period, we averaged at least one overdose death EVERY DAY somewhere in the city from the new heroin. It was UGLY. There is an old saying: meth DESTROYS, heroin KILLS. Rich, poor, young, old, male, female, it is indiscriminate.
One afternoon I was sent to the lobby of one of our ‘flea-bag’ hotels. You’ve seen them on television and in movies, they are the one room, rent-by-the-week, skid row housing, mostly occupied by the ‘down-on-their-lucks’, alcoholics, day laborers, and transient population. I arrived to find ‘Steve’ doing CPR on today’s soon-to-be heroin related death.
Steve is one of the most remarkable young men I have ever met. He was a paramedic-fireman by trade, a world-class athlete and a person of enormous courage and fortitude. We sent him through our SWAT school because we wanted to cross-train paramedics for our team.
I’m not sure that we ever challenged him in any category, certainly NOT in physical fitness. After running them for miles and miles, we tested them individually. Wearing his tactical vest and helmet, his medical bag including oxygen tank, his tactical firearm, holster, flashlight and other web gear (50+ pounds) we stood in awe watching him do pull ups. We stopped him at 15; else, we might still be there waiting for him to finish. He did NOT understand the word “QUIT”. That was the remarkable attitude that defined him for me.
After giving the ‘dead’ man CPR and NARCAN, a substance that will temporarily inhibit the effects of heroin, Steve brought the man back into the world of the living. However, it had been a large dose of heroin and the man began to slip away again. Steve started CPR again to maintain the man’s circulation and inhalation. More NARCAN was authorized and given. The man came back to us again. Just as they were preparing to transport him to the hospital, he went into cardiac arrest again. More CPR. This time it took a long, long time to bring him back to stability. CPR is unbelievably stressful and exhausting HARD WORK! The firemen had to rotate through the administration of the cardiac compressions and ventilation bag.
As they prepared to transport for the third (fourth?) time, they began to lose him again. I was close enough to see the cardiac monitor and it looked flat to me. The Battalion Chief suggested that they call the incident, enough time and effort had been spent. You can’t win them all. However, the protocol was that the Paramedics made the medical decisions, not the Battalion Chief. Without hesitation, Steve went back to work on the guy for the fourth, or was it the fifth or sixth time? No one thought there was a chance. Everyone, including the addict, had given up, everyone EXCEPT Steve.
Steve brought him back again and they were finally able to transport him to a trauma unit. When I wrote the letter of commendation to the Fire Chief, I called it the single most heroic event I had ever witnessed. I also noted the shame of it: Steve cared far more for the man’s life than did the addict himself. Steve worked harder to give the man his life back, than the man spent living it.
FYI: several months later the man overdosed again, this time there was no Steve around. We continued to find them all summer.
It was common to find an overdose drenched in water. “Friends”, afraid of being arrested for their own heroin use, would immerse the overdose victim in a bathtub of cold water to revive him or her, instead of calling the professionals. Sometimes the victim was left in the parking lot of a hospital to find his/her way to the emergency room or for someone to find the body. Often there was no obvious cause of death because the OD was taken (dumped) to another location while the onlookers cleaned up the actual site, taking or destroying the evidence of heroin and paraphernalia.
I thought I had escaped from the “big city” heroin problem, but I am saddened to tell you that there is heroin (and its Rx equivalent- Methadone) in Bonners Ferry. I have talked to some of the participants and I have seen the track marks. It’s real and it’s here NOW. Meth DESTROYS, Heroin KILLS; don’t experiment with this one.
It’s not likely that the users would be reading this article but if YOU are, please know there is help available. There are professionals that can guide you through withdrawal and rehabilitation. You don’t have to go through it alone. You are never too far-gone until YOU ARE GONE. There may NOT be a ‘Steve’ around to save you; I would not count on it. Make the right choice: SAY “NO” to heroin/methadone.