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- <text id=91TT0339>
- <title>
- Feb. 18, 1991: American Notes:Drugs
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Feb. 18, 1991 The War Comes Home
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 45
- American Notes
- DRUGS
- Just Dying For a Fix
- </hdr><body>
- <p> What seemed like ordinary bags of heroin hit the bazaars of
- the South Bronx early this month. Dubbed "Tango & Cash," the
- product sold for $10 a bag. By the end of last week, the drug
- had killed six people in New York, seven in New Jersey and two
- in Connecticut; 213 overdosed addicts wound up in emergency
- rooms. Preliminary tests indicate that the drug is fentanyl,
- a tranquilizer described as "150 to 6,000 times more potent
- than morphine."
- </p>
- <p> Police took extraordinary steps to warn addicts, cruising
- blighted neighborhoods in squad cars. "If you have used this
- drug," they announced over their loudspeakers, "seek medical
- attention immediately!" Ironically, these efforts may have led
- addicts to crave it all the more. "Hard-core users ask how they
- could get hold of it. They figure those who died made a
- mistake," says Christopher Policano, a spokesman at Phoenix
- House, a drug rehabilitation center.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-