Drug overdoses took 650 lives in Virginia last year, according to the state health department. | Pixabay
Drug overdoses took 650 lives in Virginia last year, according to the state health department. | Pixabay
A Clifton man was sentenced to 28 months in prison after allegedly brokering a drug deal that resulted in a fatal overdose of fentanyl, a dangerous opiate narcotic.
According to the Eastern District of Virginia Court records, Tyler Lee Huston, 28, was a distributor of the drug fentanyl, in addition to heroin. He allegedly had at least six customers in the Clifton area for whom he procured and sold the drugs for personal use.
The drugs had been purchased from an alleged drug dealer, Peter Romm.
The court records said Huston allegedly received free drugs from Romm in exchange for brokering deals and introducing new customers to Romm.
On Oct. 7, 2019, one such customer, only identified as N.G., picked up Huston then drove with him to Romm’s house, where Huston allegedly bought the drug fentanyl from Romm to give to N.G. and for his own (Huston’s) consumption.
As a result, the court document said N.G. took the drug and overdosed, dying later that night. The cause of death was identified as “acute fentanyl poisoning.”
The case was brought to the Eastern District of Virginia Court and prosecuted by U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger, as well as Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring. Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine E. Rumbaugh and Special Assistant Attorney Karolina Klyuchnikova also served as prosecuting attorneys in the case.
According to the Virginia Dept. of Health, in 2018 an average of three Virginians' died daily from drug overdoses. The Virginia Dept. of Health also reported drug overdosing as responsible for 7,321 emergency hospital visits in 2018 and 1,059 deaths, and 5,832 emergency calls in 2019 with 650 deaths.
The report noted that Virginia’s increasing drug-overdose problem causes blood-borne pathogen infections, overdoses requiring emergency care and deaths.
The Virginia Dept. of Health declared the situation a public health emergency in 2016.
A report from the JAMA Network said the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic this year and the resulting disruptions in health care, along with social and economic stress, will likely fuel the opioid epidemic.
Alerts Sign-up