Massapequa sees spike in drug overdoses, police say

Nassau County police say a recent spike in overdoses in Massapequa — discovered by a new real-time mapping technology — may stem from a particularly lethal batch of heroin.

Five people have overdosed on heroin in Massapequa in the past week, including a 24-year-old man who died Saturday, Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said Wednesday. One man overdosed twice.

Police say the heroin may have a particularly high concentration of the chemical painkiller fentanyl, although test results are not yet back to confirm that, Ryder said.

In the wake of the overdoses, police in the past few days have arrested 25 drug dealers and users in Massapequa, one of the epicenters of Long Island’s opioid epidemic.

Police identified the cluster of Massapequa overdoses with a countywide mapping system that allows police to perform real-time analysis of overdose trends. Nassau began using the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program in February. Suffolk also uses the technology.

"As soon as we see that spike and that it’s not normal, we know we have a problem,” Ryder said in an interview. “We cannot wait for the test results to take action.”

The rise in overdoses in Massapequa comes at a time when reported heroin overdoses are declining in Nassau and Suffolk, according to county statistics.

In Nassau, year-to-date nonfatal heroin overdoses are down by 29 percent, to 102, according to county police data.

Fatal heroin overdoses this year as of June 11 in Nassau were down by 7 percent — to 26 — compared with the same time last year.

In Suffolk, rates of fatal and nonfatal opioid overdoses dropped 38 percent year-over-year in the 12 months ending May 27.

Dr. Gregson Pigott, clinical director of the Suffolk County Department of Health Services' trained overdose responder program, said the recent overdoses in Massapequa are a warning that “it’s too soon to celebrate" the statistics showing a decline in overdoses.

“You’ll see fluctuations in numbers, but it’s too early to call it a trend,” Pigott said in an interview.

Jeffrey Reynolds, president and CEO of the Mineola-based Family and Children's Association, called the Massapequa overdose spike “proof positive that any gains we’ve made are really precarious and could change course in a holiday weekend.”

Reynolds said, “We’re going to see ups and downs, but let’s hope by the end of the year the trend will be downward.”

Ryder said one of alleged dealers who was arrested, Edward N. Gillespie, 21, of Corona, Queens, “had conversations with” the man who died of an overdose. Police still are investigating whether there is a link between Gillespie and the death.

Gillespie was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal sale of a controlled substance, both felonies. He was arraigned Sunday in First District Court in Hempstead, where he is next scheduled to appear Thursday. No information on Gillespie’s attorney was available.

Although stopping opioid use is the only certain way to prevent overdoses, people who use the drugs can take steps to reduce the chance of overdose, Reynolds said.

Reynolds said users have no way of knowing whether heroin contains a large concentration of  fentanyl.

He urged drug users to seek help through the 24-hour hotline of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, which serves both counties: 631-979-1700.