Chinese drug stronger than heroin causing deaths in Pa.

A Luzerne County coroner is sounding a warning about a dangerous new type of heroin mixed with a powerful new synthetic substance that has killed at least 10 county residents this year.

Coroner William Lisman told the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader newspaper that the designer derivative of the pain medication fentanyl, which is concocted in Chinese laboratories, is "significantly more powerful than heroin."

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, (R-Pa.), has asked the Obama administration to pressure Chinese officials to halt export of the synthetic and others.

- Associated Press

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