COURT HOUSE – Cape May County Prosecutor Robert L. Taylor issued an update on the current dangerous drug trend throughout Cape May County.
According to a release, since October, the county has had 20 overdoses reported to law enforcement, with three being fatal. This brings the total amount of overdoses to 97 this year, 10 of which were fatal.
An ever-increasing trend of novel synthetic so-called “designer” drugs are being detected in street heroin samples in Cape May County. Recently, the Cape May County Prosecutor’s laboratory has found that mixtures of heroin, fentanyl and the synthetic opioid, U-47700, which the drug enforcement administration recently banned on Nov. 14, were mixed together in one sample.
This is the first case in Cape May County where the presence of U-47700 has been detected. Law enforcement officers throughout the county are seeing an increase amount of administrations of naloxone (Narcan) being needed for each person while attempting to reverse the effects of opioids and have started to carry multiple doses for quick deployment.
Taylor urges those addicted to drugs as well as the public, that this very dangerous combination of illegal drugs can be fatal for first time users as well as those addicted for years. These designer drugs are undetectable to the user and may be in any street drug. Street drugs are now more appropriately called poisons.
Taylor continues to urge the citizens of Cape May County to report any information regarding illegal drug activity and any criminal activity within the community and that this information can be reported anonymously through the Cape May County Sheriff’s Tip Line at cmcsheriff.net and click on anonymous tip, through the Cape May County Crime Stoppers at 609-465-2800 or 877-465-2801, or Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office at 609-465-1135.
