ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 5, 1991                   TAG: 9102050236
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

SURGICAL TRANQUILIZER LINKED TO 12 DEATHS

Police said Monday that the drug that killed 12 people in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut over the weekend was a surgical tranquilizer called fentanyl and contained no heroin.

Police Chief Anthony Voelker, head of the Organized Crime Control Bureau, displayed a one-dose packet of the drug labeled "Tango and Cash" like a brand name.

Samples of the drug for testing so far have come only from blood or urine specimens of users who were hospitalized and, in one case, from residue in a straw of someone who snorted the substance, said Dr. Richard Atkins, the city's associate health commissioner.

- Associated Press 


 by CNB