Does anyone think all these overdoses were intentional?
As distasteful as de-criminalization may be to some people, it would have the advantage of reducing such accidental overdoses, and also that "not being Tyrannical" thing.
It's too bad that so many "small government conservatives" are advocates for Prohibition, which necessarily requires an expansive Nanny/Police State to enforce its self-righteous tenets.
Along with necessarily infringing on the Fourth Amendment, and necessarily creating black markets for organized crime to flourish, no-knock warrants, searches without probable cause, runaway asset forfeiture, and all of the other "necessary" Tyrannical measures which accrue when "saving People from themselves"...
I am sure you know that this is a problem when heroin which hasn’t been cut as much as normal makes it out on the street. We used to see this fairly often when I was working. There is very little quality control in criminal enterprises. Only we usually had at least a couple dead ones when there were that many. Then we wouldn’t see much activity for a while.
I do not agree that the answer is legalization. Providing easier access to more consistent heroin would increase the population of idiot losers by simple supply and demand and especially the perceived safety. Right now many people are discouraged from using heroin because of the risks involved. Users who drop over dead send the only kind of message many of the idiots in our midst actually understand.
Maybe the supplier provided something that was too powerful.