More Bad Heroin

It is a bad time to be a smack addict in Chicago.

By Saturday, May 13, 15 people had received emergency treatment after taking heroin laced with fentanyl.

On Sunday, the number was upped to 21 receiveing treatment, and one death.

Paramedics initially were called to the 1100 block of North Springfield to check on an overdosed man who was thrown onto the street from a blue pickup truck about 10 a.m. [May 13], Harding said.

Once on the scene, they found the three men passed out in the garage behind a two-story brick home on the same street, Harding said. A hazardous materials team was called to clean up all of the needles at the garage "shooting gallery," Harding said.

"At first, we tried to pick it up ourselves, but there were so many that we had to call for a haz-mat response," Harding said.

This particular rash of overdoses occured within a one-mile radius in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.

Blogged previously here, here and here.

UPDATE: Had not at first noticed this in Sunday's article: "Police did not know if Saturday's overdoses were related to five from the day before that stemmed from bad heroin passed out at Chicago and Cicero -- a mile away."