Cop Responding to Car Crash ODs on Mystery Drug at Scene

It's the 2nd such incident in recent weeks
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted May 30, 2017 3:00 AM CDT
Cop Responding to Car Crash ODs on Mystery Drug at Scene
A forensic chemist prepares a sample of the drug "Gray Death" to be weighed at the crime lab of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in Decatur, Ga., on May 4, 2017.   (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

It's only been a couple of weeks since a police officer in Ohio overdosed on fentanyl when he instinctively wiped a bit of the powder away with his bare hand while arresting two men suspected of a drug deal. Now, an officer in Pennsylvania was saved by two doses of Narcan when he opened a car's center console after a one-car crash to get the driver's wallet and a powdery substance spilled out into the air, reports Fox News. The officer, whose name has not been released, exited the vehicle, only to stumble to one knee, dizzy. Paramedics already en route to the crash around 12:30am Sunday administered Narcan; he was released from a nearby hospital within a few hours.

The officer is "doing well at this time," says Washington Township Sgt. Vincent Surace, and the mystery powder—thought to be heroin, fentanyl, or a combo—is being tested, reports TribLive. The accidental overdose comes at a time when East Coast authorities are warning drug users and police officers alike of the dangers of a new street drug, "Gray Death," which has claimed several lives this month alone and appears to be a toxic cocktail made from some combination of heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, and synthetic opioids, reports PennLive. Also this month, the AP profiles a police officer in Pennsylvania with four sons; two have battled heroin addiction. (Also in Pennsylvania, two counselors fatally overdosed at a recovery facility.)

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