Unmarked Heroin Bags New Hurdle In Overdose Investigations

STAMFORD — For decades, heroin dealers have been branding the translucent glassine envelopes they send out to the streets — as a marketing gimmick, a commentary on current events, or sometimes both. Bags stamped WMD — weapons of mass destruction — were popular during the Iraq War. Blue Thunder heroin hit the streets in the early 1980s, right after the cop movie of the same name premiered in the theaters. The stamps were a way for customers to identify a particular product in the unregulated, Wild West world of street-corner drug sales.