Two Waupaca men face felony heroin and narcotics charges after police responded to another drug overdose.
Colt J. Flynn, 21, is charged with delivery of heroin and two counts of possession of narcotics.
Rudy David-Weber, 22, is charged with delivery of narcotics, possession of narcotics and possession of heroin.
Shortly before 8 a.m. Monday, March 28, Waupaca Police Officer Wesley Zube was dispatched to a home on Pine Street in response to a reported overdose.
Dispatch initially informed Zube that the drug dealer was still at the scene, then told him the dealer had left on foot, heading toward the Waupaca County Highway Department, less than a block away.
When Zube arrived, he found Flynn, unconscious and gasping for breath, in the passenger seat of David-Weber’s car.
Zube performed a sternum rub in an effort to wake Flynn, but was unsuccessful.
Paramedics arrived and transported Flynn to the Waupaca hospital.
Zube took possession of two bindles found at the scene. They were tested for heroin, but the test was inconclusive. A test for heroin in Flynn’s blood also came back inconclusive.
Flynn reportedly told Zube that he and David-Weber were in Flynn’s bedroom when they snorted some heroin together earlier that morning.
According to the criminal complaint, Flynn said he traded his remaining heroin to David-Weber for fentanyl.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opiate that is more powerful and deadlier than heroin, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
Drug dealers sometimes cut heroin with fentanyl for a more potent high.
According to a January 2016 report by the Centers for Disease Control, there were 47,055 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2014. More than 60 percent of those deaths involved some type of opioid, including heroin.
Since 2000, the rate of opioid-related deaths in the U.S. has increased by 200 percent.
“Illicit fentanyl might be contributing to recent increases in drug overdose deaths involving heroin,” the CDC reported.
After snorting heroin, Flynn and David-Weber went out to David-Weber’s car where Flynn allegedly snorted the uncut fentanyl prior to losing consciousness.