UPDATE: 18 people overdose, 1 dead on heroin in Montgomery County

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Ky. (WTVQ)-Montgomery County is the latest area to be affected by a string of large heroin overdoses that made headlines in Ohio, and West Virginia in the past two weeks. Police believe the bad batch in this local case is a very potent form of heroin.

Mt. sterling Police Chief David Charles says 18 people overdosed on heroin in multiple areas throughout the county on Wednesday night. Out of that group, one person died. And he says the death toll could always change.

Recovering painkiller addict Tyra Wells says, “It breaks my heart to see…how bad this town has got.”

Wells says she’s lost 15 friends to heroin. She’s close to getting her life back on track with help from Sheperd’s Shelter. Victor Bondarenko, a transitional and outpatient program supervisor at the shelter, says heroin has become more of an epidemic in the state as the price of pain pills like Tyra used to traffic have gone up.

Bondarenko says, “I think where it’s so popular, so affordable, people don’t care what they put in it so they can sell more.”

Wells says, “They’re putting brown sugar, they’re putting rat poisoning in it. They don’t care. I mean…and we as addicts…I mean we’re to the point we don’t care what’s in it. We don’t think about these things. We do it. And it’s killed a lot of people.”

It’s unclear just what was in the bad batch of heroin in Montgomery County. On Tuesday and Wednesday in Cincinnati at least 78 people overdosed, in what police suspect was a mix of fentanyl or elephant tranquilizer,carfentanil, laced with narcotics. Last Monday, 25 people overdosed in West Virginia.

Chief Charles says this is just one of many big overdoses that his officers have worked and urges those suffering from addiction to seek help like Tyra Wells.
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The Chief says, “There’s not an upside to this. It’s only going to end in one of two places, one’s cured and one’s the grave.”

Wells says, “You get to the point where you feel like there’s just no hope for you. It’s a dark place to be. I’m living proof that miracles can happen.”

The police chief says he believes this batch of heroin has run it’s course. No comment if any arrests have been made. He said toxicology reports could be in within 10 days. He believes the heroin came from one single source, and the department’s still trying to find who’s responsible.