Heroin now top Northern Kentucky drug problem

COVINGTON, Ky. - Bill Mark has seen all kinds of drugs ruin lives in his years as Director of the Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force.

However, he’s never seen anything like what’s currently impacting police, the courts and treatment facilities.

“Heroin abuse and heroin trafficking – it’s the most prevalent drug-related issue that we have,” Mark said Wednesday.

Experts say two-thirds of all the heroin arrests in the Commonwealth of Kentucky are occurring in Boone, Kenton and Campbell Counties.

“The heroin problem right now is worse than I’ve seen it in Northern Kentucky,” said Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney Rob Sanders.

“We’re having weekly, if not daily, overdoses that often result in deaths.  We’re having arrests daily for heroin possession.”

Mark said heroin has replaced oxycodone as the drug of choice because it’s more powerful, more addictive and costs less than oxycodone.

“Oxycodone typically costs about $1.00 a milligram, so a 30 milligram tablet on the street will go for $25,” he said.  “Someone addicted to oxycodone might be paying up to $200 a day for pills, whereas heroin is typically less expensive and a person can satisfy the same habit for $100.”

Sanders said the majority of the drug is coming South across the Ohio River bridges.

“We do have some heroin sales on this side of the river, but most of it is coming over from Cincinnati,” he said.  “It’s pretty much run crack cocaine out of business.”

Cellphones make buying and selling heroin extremely easy, according to Mark. For example, a deal can be negotiated electronically to meet at a public parking lot off an interstate highway. The money and drugs quickly are exchanged and both parties are on their way.    

“The transaction itself is very brief,” he said. 

It’s also hard to catch the participants, who come from all walks of life.

Sanders said heroin arrests are a big burden on Kenton County courts.

“We’re probably well over 100 cases a year – maybe 200 or 300 cases a year – just for simple heroin possession,” he said. 

That doesn’t count trafficking, people driving after using the drug and causing an accident and some who use it around children or drive with children in their vehicles. And, police say the drug is driving other crimes as well.

“Most of our copper thefts and our burglaries I would say are probably caused by heroin addiction,” he said.  “It’s spreading beyond the consumption of the drug itself.”

One thing that bothers Sanders immensely is Kentucky House Bill 463, which delays prosecution as long as the offender checks into a treatment program.

“It comes as close as we can to legalizing the use of the drug,” he said.

Sanders is urging the General Assembly to toughen the trafficking laws.

Prison terms of five to 10 years used to be standard for any amount of heroin sold.  Now, an amount of less than two grams brings a sentence of one-to- five years.

Treatment experts see the spike in heroin use from a different perspective.

Of the 10 people currently in rehabilitation at the Awareness & Discovery Group in Newport, eight have a heroin addiction, according to Managing Director Jeff Duell.

“That means they’re a slave.  They’re a slave to that drug,” Duell said.  “They can’t see their way to get off of it without some sort of a bottom hit in their life and then without some sort of treatment.”

An intensive outpatient treatment program runs three days a week for three hours a day and costs $1,800.

However, many of the addicts can’t pay the cost.

“We need money, somehow, for treatment opportunities for individuals,” said Duell.

He added he feels the justice system, the police and the treatment community have to work together to find solutions.

Mark agreed that cooperation is essential along with public education so people know the risks involved with heroin.

Sanders said any solution won’t be easy or inexpensive.

“It’s just a matter of how much we’re willing to spend to solve the problem,” he said.