As the song points out, the murder rate is a symptom of a serious drug problem -Washington is one of the leading cities in cocaine- and heroin-related deaths.

The style's demise is traced to the heroin-related death of one photographer who exploited it.

He also pointed to drug use in the music industry, alluding to the heroin-related death of the back-up keyboardist in the group Smashing Pumpkins.

In comparison, there were about 100 heroin-related deaths in Allegheny County alone last year, said Joseph T. Dominick, the chief deputy coroner.

The announcement by the police stood out in a city with 900 heroin-related deaths a year, marking a sweeping official reaction to the downtown deaths.

Using these drugs with heroin increases the risk of overdose - one in every four heroin-related deaths involves the combined use of these drugs.

Temazepam was found in 26% of heroin-related deaths.

"We have seen a huge increase in the number of heroin-related deaths in the past two years," Ms. Pena said.

My country has more heroin-related deaths than anywhere else and it is the poorest country in the eurozone.

Since the mid-1990's, Orlando has ranked as high as third among the nation's cities in heroin-related deaths of teenagers per capita, the Florida Office of Drug Control says.