Suspected heroin deaths worry police

  Roanoke County police are investigating a pair of suspected heroin overdose deaths which occurred only two days apart.

  While investigators say the cases are not related, they say it’s worrisome since the county has not typically seen this much heroin use.

  The first death occurred June 30th in the southwest county area.
 
  Police say it was 27 year old woman.

  The second happened on July 2nd in the northwest part of the county.

  It was a 37 year old man, according to police.

  Investigators declined to give any other details, such as names or addresses, since the cases are still under investigation.

  Police however did reveal they’ve seen a spike in heroin use in the county over recent weeks.

  Police in Roanoke city have been dealing with problems in heroin use over the past few years.

  Although recent statistics show the number of heroin seizures was down sharply in fiscal year 2008 compared to fiscal year 2007.

  Roanoke police provided the data below:

Heroin packet seizures since fiscal year 2001 (the fiscal year runs July 1 through June 30):

FY 2001:    10
FY 2002:    245
FY 2003:    170
FY 2004:    47
FY 2005:  1,602
FY 2006:  1,471
FY 2007:  3,233
FY 2008:  1,769

  Police say the numbers probably didn’t come from individual arrests for heroin possession, although some did.  Police say it’s more likely a suspect was found with multiple packets at the time of his/her arrest.