Heroin in vape pens? Overdoses hospitalize 2 high school students, WV cops say
Two high school students were hospitalized in the last 24 hours “as a result of overdosing on heroin-laced ‘vape pens,’” according to police in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Preliminary testing on one of the vape solutions showed that it contained heroin, as well as other opioids and “a significant number of other chemicals,” the Morgantown Police Department said in a public safety announcement Friday.
“These devices are extremely dangerous,” Morgantown Police Chief Ed Preston said in a Facebook video Friday. “We’re asking anyone that possesses, is using or knows anybody using them to either turn them into school administration, local law enforcement, or throw them away.”
Police warned that the solutions “are extremely dangerous and potentially fatal from as little as one use.”
Police said they’re not interested in charging anyone for turning the product in to authorities.
“At least one of the devices was sold as liquid marijuana, which is also dangerous in these types of devices and possibly fatal when mixed with other chemicals and controlled substances,” police said.
Just last month, a Utah public school district said vaping devices used by students tested positive for methamphetamine in “more than one incident.”
“At this time, it is unclear as to how the methamphetamine was acquired or who was responsible for the vaping devices containing the drugs,” Grand County School District officials in Moab, Utah, said in an October news release.
This story was originally published November 1, 2019 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Heroin in vape pens? Overdoses hospitalize 2 high school students, WV cops say."
