2 More 'Cheese' Related Deaths In North Texas

The overall death toll from the drug in North Texas is believed to be at least 28, including 24 deaths in Dallas County.

(AP) FORT WORTH North Texas authorities said two more people have died from "cheese," a cheap drug made by combining heroin with over-the-counter allergy or headache medications.

The Tarrant County medical examiner this week confirmed the cause of death for James David Burnette, 17, of Arlington. The recent high school graduate died at home July 31, just four days before his 18th birthday.

The July 7 death of Pedro Duque, 26, in Fort Worth also has been ruled a cheese death, medical examiner's spokeswoman Linda Anderson said Friday.

Officials with Tarrant County Challenge Inc., which tracks alcohol and substance abuse, believe the deaths are the first attributed to cheese in Tarrant County.

The overall death toll from the drug in North Texas is believed to be at least 28, including 24 deaths in Dallas County.

John Haenes, the chief operating officer for Tarrant County Challenge, said the biggest problem is the drug is very cheap and easy to make.

He said black tar heroin routinely travels up Interstate 35 from Mexico and is readily available on the streets of Dallas. Mixing it with cheap generic over-the-counter medications cuts the price.

The combination produces euphoria and a mild hallucinogenic effect and also can restrict respiration and cause death.

More than 300 experts Thursday attended Tarrant County Challenge's daylong conference on the cheese outbreak.

"The problem is many of the kids think cheese is harmless," Haenes said.

Cheese first surfaced in Dallas about a year ago and quickly spread through the school district, said Jeremy Liebbe of the Dallas school district's police force. He said cheese has been found in more than a dozen Dallas secondary schools and in several surrounding school districts.

In Dallas, cheese is most popular among teens in grades seven throughout nine, though the district has found some users as young as 10, Liebbe said. He said he had no firm numbers on how many youths might be using it.

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