Chief Darren McConnell said Monday he could not release the names of the victims, who were all found unresponsive in the house at 85 Bank Street. But one deceased victim has been identified to redbankgreen by his brother.
The deaths occurred at 85 Bank Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Two men died and three others were hospitalized after apparently overdosing on opiates together in Red Bank early Sunday morning.
Chief Darren McConnell told redbankgreen that police were still sorting out the victims’ identities and other details of a “chaotic” scene in the small house at 85 Bank Street, where the activity occurred.
A “heat map” showing the concentration of drug-overdose deaths in Monmouth County last year. (Map by Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
One-hundred-sixty-five people died of drug overdoses in Monmouth County last year, almost double the number just four years ago, the prosecutor’s office reported Tuesday.
Despite the widespread, often successful use of a fast-acting opiate antidote, the number of overdose victims continued to soar last year, rising 35 percent, the agency reported.
Red Bank police Chief Darren McConnell said the number of overdose cases in the borough over the last two years is “ridiculously higher” than he’d seen in the first three decades in law enforcement.
Speaking about the heroin epidemic at a Red Bank Regional High School assembly were (left to right) Lt. Jason C. Clark, Capt. Barry DuBrosky, Lt. Wesley Mayo, Jr., and Abby Boxman.
Press release from Red Bank Regional High School
Law enforcement professionals from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office have been traversing Monmouth County for the past two years, sounding the alarm on the problem of heroin addiction affecting many young people.
In October, they returned to RB — this time to have that very difficult conversation with students.
The detectives shared some startling statistics: 4.2 million Americans aged 12 or older have reported to used heroin at least once in their lives. Of that number, one in four will become addicted; shockingly only 20 percent of those who become addicted ever recover enough to assume productive lives. This problem has become rampant in the suburbs of New Jersey, with a 45 percent increase in heroin-related deaths in the past two years; 24 percent in the last year alone. One Powerpoint slide showed the unnatural causes of death for 2013 in the county: homicides 4; highway fatalities 29; drug overdoses 37 (of which 31 were due to heroin.)
“Is it here in Little Silver?” One student asked, to which Detective Barry DuBrosky responded, “The answer is yes.”
Two weeks after receiving supplies of Narcan, a new nasal-spray drug created to halt the deadly effects of heroin and other opiods, Middletown police notched their first “save,” the MTPD reported Friday morning.
An unidentified male arrest subject passed out from an apparent drug overdose while being processed at the station Thursday, Lieutenant Steve Dollinger tells redbankgreen.
The house at 85 Bank Street, where two men died and three others suffered apparent drug overdoses. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Red Bank police on Monday had little new information to share after two men died and three others were hospitalized for apparent drug overdoses early Sunday.
Two men died and three others were hospitalized after apparently overdosing on opiates together in Red Bank early Sunday morning.
