Taos police take drug overdoses to task
Posted at: 08/03/2012 8:11 PM
| Updated at: 08/06/2012 9:15 AM
By: KOB.com staff
Taos police and the District Attorney there have launched an initiative to end an alarming number of prescription drug overdoses.
KOB Eyewitness News 4 sent a crew to Taos and were surprised to find - what they're doing is something that you'd expect authorities would be doing everywhere.
Taos Police Chief Jerry Hogrefe said he's fed up.
"I want the community to know that I'm tired of it- I know they're tired of it," he said.
Just days after being released on a forged prescription charge, Taos police say Dashiell Pala threw a party. Interviews with witnesses from that party told police that Pala gave Xanax and Suboxone to Adrian Gonzales and others.
8th Judicial District Attorney Donald Gallegos said while some people may say the person chose to take drugs, Gonzales did not provide himself with those substances.
Taos police said they learned through interviews with partygoers that Pala took an unresponsive Gonzales to Gonzales's home in Arrroyo Seca. Gonzales was later found dead from an overdose.
Police charged Pala with giving Gonzales the drugs and involuntary manslaughter.
Hogrefe said prescription drugs can be just as dangerous as street drugs.
"To me it's not a whole lot different than your street drugs. your heroine, your cocaine - Xanax, Suboxone, Valium- these type of drugs - prescription drugs are just as deadly," he said. "They seem to be causing more deaths or overdose deaths than the hard drugs. the ones that are not prescription drugs, the heroin, the crack, meth and so on."
30-year-old Pala is being held in Taos County Jail on a $500,000 cash-only bond. The District Attorney's office said it hopes to have a grand jury hear his case in the coming week.
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