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Growing Heroin Problem: 3 People Overdose Within Minutes Of Each Other In Comstock Twp.

Posted at 6:08 PM, Apr 29, 2013
and last updated 2013-04-29 18:31:00-04

COMSTOCK TOWNSHIP, Mich. —  Neighbors say the fact that three people overdosed on heroin within a minutes of each other in Comstock Township is pointing to a growing problem in the community.

Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call first on the 6200 block of Wright Street, then minutes later, at 600 Azuba.

Those addresses sit less than a mile away from one another.

Police say on Wright Street, a 27-year-old man and his girlfriend and baby were in the car when she passed out and didn’t have a pulse.Meanwhile, the man’s sister collapsed inside the house and medics rushing to the scene had to attend to both women.

The man was also found to be using heroin.

“It was a very, very busy afternoon,” said Kathy Branham, a neighbor to the home on Wright Street. The rescue squad was here, there was a couple of ambulances.”

Two women in the home confirmed the incident on Monday, but had no further comment on the situation.

Just minutes later, 911 dispatchers got a call from 600 Azuba for a 24-year-old woman who had become unconscious without a pulse after using heroin.One neighbor described how she was removed on a stretcher.”The ambulance and cops and everybody came and she was wheeled out and put in and the cops stayed for many hours after that. Just right around that area, guarding the front door and asking everybody questions,” she said.

The woman lives a few houses down from the home and is now concerned about needles or trash a potential heroin user could leave behind since her boys are young.

“They play. They ride their bikes up and down, and it makes me worried what could be out there now, now that I know what`s been going on there. What could be around, if something has been dropped or picked up,” she said.

Branham says she feels this is a growing problem.

Both neighbors say the problem seems to be increasing and it’s proof the community may have to fight against the increased use of the drug in their neighborhoods.

“I just think it`s the way society is going right now, and I don`t understand why that is,” said Branham.

Law enforcement said all three heroin overdose victims survived.

There may be drug-related charges pending further investigation of the case.