Clay heroin arrests up 466 percent

Like the proverbial handwriting on the wall, I saw it coming.

It was September 2014 at a press conference at the Clay County Sheriff’s Office in which Sheriff Rick Beseler and Detective David Barnes briefed Northeast Florida media on a six-month long investigation dubbed “Operation Summer Slam.”

Both men said much of Clay County’s drug problem can be linked back to Florida’s pain killer addiction problem, which in its heyday, saw pill mills popping up at what seemed like all over and thousands of people addicted to drugs such as OxyContin, hydrocodone and other opioid-derivatives.

I recall Beseler, that day, characterizing how drug addicts behave. He basically said addicts shift from drug-to-drug based on what’s available on the street at the time. If police clamp down on the flow of one drug, another drug rears its prevalent head and grabs the psyche of users everywhere.

“It’s not just a Clay County issue. It’s a State of Florida issue, as well as a national issue. The pharmaceutical pills are the things that we’re dealing with most right now. That’s where the crisis is at,” Barnes said.

Besesler said, that in 2013, Floridians were dying at the rate of seven people per day due to prescription drug abuse. He said prescription drug monitoring programs are proving successful in curbing those numbers to a point “we have been able to put a dent in the pharmaceutical drug issue statewide. Those numbers have dropped dramatically and we’re saving lives.”

Which brings us to 2015. With the crack down on pain killers, addicts nationwide have turned to heroin and Clay County is not immune.

For example, in 2014, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office logged three heroin arrests. However, the picture in 2015 is rather different. As of Oct. 28, 17 people have been charged with some form of heroin violation, whether it be possession or distribution. Do the math and that is a 466.66 percent increase.

The fact that heroin is on our streets follows a string of national reporting of how heroin use in the U.S. is at an all-time high. Search the Internet and it’s phenomenal – story after story has been written about the scourge and what the experts are saying is amazing.

There is a consensus and a body of evidence showing that the crackdown on opioid pill mills is to blame for the rise in heroin use. Addicts can’t find their old friend, the opioid-based painkiller, so they go to the next available product – heroin.

“Nearly half of young people who inject heroin surveyed in three recent studies reported abusing prescription opioids before starting to use heroin. Some individuals reported taking up heroin because it is cheaper and easier to obtain than prescription opioids,” states a report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

But the fallout from heroin is more daunting than simple drug abuse. Earlier this year, I had a friend tell me how his daughter had racked up a felony criminal record because of her painkiller abuse. This drug addiction forces users to steal and commit other crimes in order to get money to fund the habit and we’ve heard this storyline before. Remember the 1980s epidemic called crack cocaine?

So what is the solution?

Officials at River Region and Clay Behavioral Health report that the number of Clay County residents currently in methadone treatment for heroin addiction has remained steady. But, the need is obvious and one solution was put in place earlier this year when River Region opened a methadone clinic on Lochrane Boulevard west of Orange Park.

The issue is not going away with one solution. In fact, it’s so disconcerting to America that a new poll of voters in New Hampshire showed drug abuse as the No. 1 issue ahead of the need for good jobs.

“Twenty-five percent of New Hampshire adults said drug abuse is the most important problem, with jobs and the economy coming in at 21 percent, the poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center found. Education, health care, taxes and the state budget followed, all below 10 percent. The survey found 88 percent of New Hampshire adults say that “heroin abuse is a very serious problem,” writer Allie Morris reported in the Political Monitor on Oct. 7.

The heroin issue is also likely to morph into a national campaign issue as the presidential campaign actually become serious.

When candidates such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tout the fact that he championed a bill in July 2012 that requires drug treatment for low-level drug offenders who otherwise would serve prison terms. And like my friend, Christie tells the story of one of his friends who became addicted to painkillers.

He said his friend from law school, “had everything” before injuring his back and was prescribed painkillers, which forced him in and out of rehab for 10 years. After he lost his job, his home, his wife, his right to see his daughters and all of his savings, he was found dead “with an empty bottle of Percocet and an empty quart of vodka.”

So how can Christie’s conversation become part of the conversation in Clay County? The war on drugs is proving fruitless, unrealistic and costly. Beseler stopped short of admitting that fact when he said addicts simply move on to the next thing on the street, the question is, will they be on your street next?