Overdose

I hope everyone has taken a few moments to collect themselves after that spectacular finale. Midway through, I was a bit worried as the episode was beginning to seem more like a series finale than a season finale. However, the last 15 minutes provided everything a good finale should: suspense, murder, a love triangle (quadrangle!), a drug overdose, break-ups (bonus points for calling off an engagement), a conniving friend, heart break, a parent finding their child unconscious, unplanned pregnancy, a declaration of “never speak to me again” followed by a quick hang up, an engagement, a serious accident (plane instead of car, way to go big!

Paramedics in Harford County rushed a 21-year-old Jarrettsville woman to a hospital Wednesday night for a possible overdose. Emergency crews were dispatched in response to a call that came in at 7:44 p.m. for a woman in the 4000 block of Federal Hill Road, who had possibly overdosed, according to police. The woman was found with a hypodermic needle and transported by paramedics, according to Monica Worrell, a Harford County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman. No further information was available.

The Kitsap County (Washington) coroner said Tony Fein , who was a member of the Ravens during the preseason, died of an accidental drug overdose. Coroner Greg Sandstrom said Wednesday that toxicology tests showed "acute opiate [morphine] intoxication" with the added effect of Alprazolam, a drug used to treat anxiety. Sandstrom says Fein also vomited and aspirated that material. Fein collapsed Oct. 6 at a friend's house near Port Orchard and died at Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton.

Maryland's medical examiner has determined that the Feb. 27 death of an Ellicott City quadriplegic was a homicide. An investigation is continuing. According to a statement this week from the Howard County police department, a final autopsy report from the medical examiner ruled that the death of Kevin Patrick Molony, 51, of Ellicott City, was a homicide by an overdose of oxycodone, a prescription painkiller. Molony was paralyzed in a car accident in 2007 and was living in the 4000 block of Chariots Flight Way, under the care of family members and nurses.

ST. MARGARETS -- Vickie Lynee Hippler, whose body was found outside the defunct Dick Gessner's Broadway Corner dinner theater on June 8, died of an overdose of heroin, cocaine and alcohol, according to toxicology tests released yesterday by the state medical examiner.An autopsy of Ms. Hippler's body conducted the day after she was found did not determine a cause of death, said Officer Randy Bell, spokesman for the Anne Arundel County police.County homicide detectives have ruled the death accidental and have closed the investigation, Officer Bell said.

Baltimore police are investigating an alleged heroin party that resulted in the overdose deaths of a man and a woman, whose bodies were found at two different times in the same house yesterday.The bodies of the victims, both unidentified, were found at a home in the first block of North Rose Street in East Baltimore. When police were called to the house yesterday at 7 a.m., they discovered the body of the man. They were called to the scene a second time, at 3:18 p.m., when a woman's body was found.

The Westminster woman whose body state police discovered in an Eldersburg creek on March 22 died of an overdose of drugs and alcohol, according to an autopsy by the chief medical examiner's office in Baltimore. State police do not suspect foul play nor do they believe the overdose was intentional, said Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman. The woman, Janet L. Seal, 44, of the first block of Pennsylvania Ave., was pronounced dead at the scene near the 1700 block of Bennett Road.

A 16-year-old Westminster boy suspected of supplying the heroin that killed a schoolmate in January has been ordered to stand trial as an adult on drug distribution charges.Kristopher Olenginski, an 11th-grade student at Westminster High School, was released into his parents' custody Friday after being charged as an adult on charges stemming from the overdose death of 15-year-old Liam A. O'Hara.In rejecting a defense lawyer's plea that Olenginski should be tried in the juvenile justice system, Carroll County Circuit Judge Francis M. Arnold said: "This is a very serious case.

Indicted Baltimore Comptroller Jacqueline F. McLean apparently attempted suicide with an overdose of prescription pills last night, leaving a two-page handwritten note for her husband that apologized for causing him troubles, police said.Mrs. McLean was taken to Union Memorial Hospital by ambulance shortly before 10 p.m. from their luxury condominium apartment at the Colonnade on Canterbury Road in North Baltimore, police said.She was listed in critical but stable condition early today, a hospital spokeswoman said.

A 17-year-old boy who graduated from Glenelg High School last month was found dead early yesterday leaning against a tree near Triadelphia Reservoir -- the victim of an suspected heroin overdose, police said.Friends and neighbors of Damien Massella of the 3200 block of Roscommon Drive in Glenelg said they were shocked by his death.Several remembered a "guy who always liked having fun.""He was just a great friend," said Jason Krepner, 17, also a Glenelg graduate. "He was like a jokester. He was really excited about graduating."

Baltimore City has long held the unfortunate title of "U.S. heroin capital. " Over the years, many people inside and outside of Baltimore have chosen to promulgate this unofficial designation when reporting on or portraying Baltimore's challenges with drugs, addiction and the residual effects of high crime, violence and other social ills. Baltimore, like many urban jurisdictions across the country, has suffered and continues to suffer tremendously from the consequences of illegal drugs flowing into our city.

June 19th marked the 25th anniversary of the cocaine related death of University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias. It was a tragedy that sent shock waves throughout the sports world and the entire country. It turns out it was only the beginning of an epidemic that has grown to impact every sport in this country. Both legal and illegal drug use in sports remains in the spotlight and continues to embarrass, harm and even kill our athletes well before their time. Just in the past several weeks we have seen drugs impact no fewer than six different sports and may have taken the lives of several athletes.

The simple act of trying to keep dentures in place can trigger serious health problems, including neurological damage, a new study by University of Maryland researchers warns. Preliminary studies link the zinc in some adhesives to neurological damage and blood abnormalities, at least among patients who squeeze out too much denture cream, too often, trying to keep their teeth anchored. A review of the scientific literature by faculty members at the University of Maryland Dental School has concluded that these health risks "should be a matter of concern for all dentists caring for denture patients.

A state medical panel upheld a suspension order Wednesday against an obstetrician who ran a clinic in which an 18-year-old woman was badly injured during an abortion. Neither the doctor — George Shepard Jr., 88, who oversaw the five Maryland clinics of American Women's Services — nor his attorney appeared at the hearing in Baltimore of the Maryland Board of Physicians that was to hear evidence against him in the case of the woman, who suffered a perforated uterus and other injuries during an Aug. 13 procedure in Elkton.

The Kitsap County (Washington) coroner said Tony Fein , who was a member of the Ravens during the preseason, died of an accidental drug overdose. Coroner Greg Sandstrom said Wednesday that toxicology tests showed "acute opiate [morphine] intoxication" with the added effect of Alprazolam, a drug used to treat anxiety. Sandstrom says Fein also vomited and aspirated that material. Fein collapsed Oct. 6 at a friend's house near Port Orchard and died at Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton.

In two Baltimore courtrooms adjacent to the one occupied by Mayor Sheila Dixon - known here as defendant Sheila Ann Dixon - here's what happened on Thursday: In one courtroom, Gregory Carmichael pleaded with a judge to get into a program to treat his addiction to alcohol, just one in a parade of substance abusers that morning seeking help instead of jail. In the other courtroom, a judge started picking a jury to try Charles Owens on charges that he shot a man four times in drug-infested Park Heights.

Deaths from alcohol and drug overdoses declined for the second straight year in Baltimore and are at their lowest level since 1995, when the city began recording the data, according to a Health Department report released today. In 2008, 176 people died of a drug overdose in Baltimore, compared with 281 in 2007, a decrease of about one-third. Baltimore health officials called the figures significant and noted that they come at a time when overdose rates in other cities are climbing. They said increased treatment slots, better outreach to addicts and a five-year-old program that teaches drug abusers how to avoid overdosing themselves have contributed to the decline.

Eric Lee Downey was found last week on a wooden pier, near his bicycle, lying face up with his arms outstretched, dead from a morphine overdose. It was the first juvenile drug overdose in Anne Arundel County this decade. Behind the pier, in a house that looks out onto Stony Creek, a woman controls the pain of terminal lung cancer with morphine. Her son was Eric's friend. The night Eric, 17, died, the two had been seen together on the pier at High Point Beach in Pasadena. That's where authorities believe Eric began swallowing morphine tablets.

University of Maryland pharmacologist Carrie John died from an allergic reaction and not because she injected a seemingly tainted batch of the narcotic buprenorphine, according to the state medical examiner. "There was nothing in her system to cause her death, no drugs," said Dr. Zabiullah Ali, the pathologist who investigated her death Sept. 27. "It was an allergic reaction to something she injected," Ali said Thursday in response to questions from The Baltimore Sun. "But what it is, we don't know."