NEWS

Heroin making comeback in community

Scott Rogers
lsrogers@thenewsstar.com

Heroin is slowly making its way back into northeastern Louisiana as people search for cheaper ways to get high.

Rays of Sonshine assistant director Claire White said they’ve recently seen new cases of heroin use among clients. She said it’s been several years since they’ve had clients using heroin.

Judge Sharon Marchman, who presides over 4th Judicial District’s drug court, also has seen more heroin use among offenders.

“We are definitely seeing it — a rise in people we interview in drug court reporting using heroin in recent months. I think that’s true across the country because it’s become a drug that is much more available from a cost standpoint,” Marchman said.

A USA Today report in July looked at how heroin use was reaching new communities as people transition to cheaper drugs.

An estimated 517,000 people used heroin or were dependent on it in 2013, a nearly 150 percent increase since 2007, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

According to the USA Today report, officials said people switch to heroin because it is cheaper. For a heavy user, a day’s supply of OxyContin — two 80 milligram pills — can cost up to $160. A day’s worth of heroin costs just $40, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“They have found economical ways to break it down and sell it, and they’ve got the market out there — people will buy whatever is out there that’s cheap,” Marchman said.

The increase of a “highly dangerous, highly addictive” narcotic is cause for concern, Marchman said.

“Because it is so addictive and it is hard to detox and become sober, it becomes much more problematic,” Marchman said.

Rays of Sonshine started seeing an increase in heroin use over the past four months.

“We haven’t had anybody come in for heroin addiction in years. We just got three people in all of sudden with the same sort of issues — they were strong opiate users and sought something cheaper, and heroin is cheaper,” White said.

Those addicted to opiates — mainly prescription drugs — find a similar high with heroin, which is much cheaper today because there’s not been much of a demand for it.

Experts note that many users turn to heroin after a crackdown on prescription drug “pill mills” made painkillers such as OxyContin harder to find and more costly.

“It’s been sort of a dead drug, but now they’re bringing heroin in cheap and dealers see a need of people wanting to cut the withdrawals from opiate medications. Now people are getting addicted to heroin,” White said.

Monroe Police Department spokesman Detective Reggie Brown said MPD has not worked any recent cases involving heroin.

University Health Conway’s director of nursing Patrick King, who oversees the hospital’s emergency room, said Conway has not seen any incidents recently involving heroin.

Capt. Jay Ellerman of the Metro Narcotics Unit said while local law enforcement hasn’t worked many cases with heroin, he expects that to change with reports of increased use in Shreveport, Lafayette, Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Once it hits a community, heroin can quickly take over the drug market, Ellerman said.

“We anticipate it’s coming because it’s on the increase in larger cities and it would be naive to think it’s not coming here,” Ellerman said.

For the past year, local authorities have gotten alerts from state agencies indicating a rise in heroin use among major cities.

Typically Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office handles few cases involving heroin — maybe five cases a year and a couple of traffic stops along Interstate 20 with people transporting it to other locations, Ellerman said.

For right now, though, methamphetamine, crack and cocaine are the top drugs in Ouachita Parish.

But Ellerman’s very much aware of the trend that’s happening in cities across the country.

“When it gets here, it takes over,” Ellerman said.

Follow Scott Rogers on Twitter @lscottrogers