38-year-old New Bedford man dies of suspected OD – News – southcoasttoday.com

Curt Brown @CurtBrown_SCT

NEW BEDFORD — The body of a 38-year-old city man was found deceased Wednesday, the death apparently the result of a drug overdose.

The death is at least the ninth suspected fatal overdose this January in New Bedford. It is also at least the fourth fatal suspected overdose since Friday in New Bedford and the third in two days.

There were three suspected fatal drug overdoses during January 2018 in New Bedford, according to figures released earlier this month by the city’s Opioid Task Force.

The 38-year-old man was found by a friend shortly after noon Wednesday in the bedroom of his Rodney Street apartment, a spokesman for the DA’s office said. He was declared deceased at 12:15 p.m. by emergency responders.

The man, who is not identified, had battled addiction most of his adult life and was seen in the apartment with “a brown powdery substance” on Tuesday, the DA’s office said.

His death is being treated as an apparent fatal drug overdose, the spokesman said. The cause of death will be determined after an autopsy by the state’s Medical Examiner’s office, including a toxicology examination.

The Opioid Task Force said, as of the morning of Jan. 16, there have been 5 apparent fatal drug overdoses this January in New Bedford. There have been at least four suspected fatal drug overdoses since Jan. 16, according to reports from the DA’s office and the New Bedford Police Department.

The suspected fatal overdoses since Jan. 16 are a 55-year-old New Bedford man in an Ellen Street apartment on Jan. 18; a 50-year-old New Bedford man and 28-year-old city man in a double fatal overdose in the same Union Street apartment on Tuesday; and the 38-year-old New Bedford man on Rodney Street.

Police Chief Joseph C. Cordeiro has cited the potency of the fentanyl on the streets of New Bedford and the uneven mixing of the fentanyl as factors for the spike this month in the number of apparent fatal and non-fatal overdoses.

The fentanyl is mixed with other substances in illegal drug labs and the mixing is uneven, sometimes producing situations where one user overdoses and the other does not, he said.

Follow Curt Brown on Twitter @CurtBrown_SCT.