Cocaine warning after spate of fatal drug overdoses in Sydney

A spate of drug overdoses in Sydney have left two people dead and two more fighting for life, sparking fears dealers are cutting cocaine with heroin or other opioids

The first overdose occurred in a laneway in Chinatown where paramedics found an unresponsive man at about 5.30pm on Wednesday. He was able to be revived and was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital in a critical condition.

Then on Good Friday police were called to a medical facility in Camperdown at about 12pm to find two women, 45 and 36, who appeared to have overdosed on heroin. The older woman died at the scene while the other woman was taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in a critical condition.

At about 9.30pm on the same night a man, 25, was found dead inside an apartment in Waterloo after emergency services were called to carry out a welfare check.

Police are now looking into whether the three incidents are linked, and believe heroin was involved in all three, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The four overdoses came just days after NSW Health released a public warning about cocaine containing heroin or other opioids causing six overdoses in March, leaving one man in intensive care.

​”NSW Health is warning the community about the dangers of unexpected drugs in cocaine, following six recent opioid overdoses in Sydney and Western NSW,” the alert read.

“Of the six people across NSW who presented to hospital in March with suspected opioid overdose after using substances they thought to be cocaine, one has required treatment in an intensive care unit.

“Some of the people who presented to hospital were known to each other. Blood or urine testing of some of these people has shown that opioids such as heroin were present with cocaine.”

Medical Director of the NSW Poisons Information Centre, Dr Darren Roberts, said people who used cocaine, methamphetamine or opioids should carry the drug naxolone, which reverses the effects of opioids and is free to obtain.

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