Fourteen people in the area have sought help for symptoms associated with tainted heroin.

Heart palpitations, anxiety, an elevated heart rate—these aren’t effects heroin users expect to feel after taking an opiate. But in the last week, 12 users in Durham County, one user in Orange County and one in Lee County fell ill with these symptoms after using heroin. Anna Dulaney, a clinical toxicologist at the Carolinas Poison Center suspects the heroin they were using was tainted with another substance.

“There could be a large batch of tainted drug out there that we’d really like to follow up on with our friends at the Department of Heath and find out what this contaminant is, if it is a contaminant,” Dulaney said.

Dulaney says the patients’ symptoms are similar to those experienced by a wave of users who became ill after taking contaminated heroin in 2005. Toxicologists determined the contaminant in those cases was clenbuterol, a drug used for treating asthma.

“We’re not saying this is clenbuterol, again, we do not have confirmation,” Dulaney said. “The symptoms are just very similar to what we saw in 2005.”

The Carolinas Poisons Center is collecting samples from patients’ to test for contamination. Dulaney says it will be several days before the Center can confirm what the substance is. In the meantime, Dulaney warns heroin users to be careful and to seek help if they experience unusual effects.

“There’s something in here that is causing symptoms that are very concerning and could also be very dangerous to patients, besides the normal risks of using heroin,” Dulaney said.

The possible drug contamination comes amid concerns about the increase of heroin use across the nation. A July report from the Centers for Disease Control shows a 63 percent increase in heroin use since 2002.

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