Heroin remains the most popular drug, despite around 10 residents dying from opiate overdose annually.
Despite the copious amount of heroin busts the Athens County Sheriff’s Office has completed countywide, heroin, which kills roughly 10 residents annually, has remained the “drug of choice” locally, health officials said.
In 2014, there were a total of 56 drug cases in the county. Four months into 2015, there are 43 active cases, according to records from the Athens County Sheriff’s Office.
Among those 43 cases, 11 involve investigating heroin usage.
“(Heroin) is actually getting bigger because we’ve been really hard on pill mills,” said Athens County Sheriff Rodney Smith. “Heroin is easier to get and it’s cheaper.”
Participants in a study conducted by the Ohio Substance Abuse Monitoring Network from June 2013 to January 2014 rated the availability of heroin in Athens County “10” on a scale of 1 to 10. With that high of availability, fatalities are expected.
“The reason people use heroin ... is because (it) goes to (their) brain and causes the release of dopamine,” said Athens City-County Health Commissioner James Gaskell.
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Gaskell added that dopamine is a “feel good” nervous system hormone, though there are many alternative ways to release dopamine in the brain, including running and laughing.
“They don’t realize there’s healthier ways to get the dopamine release,” he said.
If someone takes too much of an opiate, such as heroin, it affects that person’s ability to breathe, which can lead to apnea and eventually a loss of breathing, Gaskell said, adding that if he or she isn’t revived, the person could die.
In late October, project DAWN, or Death Avoided With Naloxone, came to the Athens City-County Health Department. The program offers free kits and training to opiate users, as well as the friends or family of users. Naloxone is administered during an opiate overdose that essentially stops the overdose for a brief period of time to allow time to reach a hospital.
Gaskell said since then, the department has distributed 40 kits, but hasn’t received any refill requests, meaning the kits have yet to be used.
Bill Dunlap, deputy director of the Athens County 317 board, said his department helps refer individuals with addictions to treatment agencies.
“We get a number of calls … regarding the fact that they were turned away because they didn’t have any kind of payer source,” Dunlap said.
Despite the programs available to addicts, Smith said there’s an active supply and demand reaction occurring in the county.
“If you get a good high from that, there’s a supply and demand,” Smith said. “We’ll never say we’re done or that we’ve done enough.”
Smith attributed the increase in drug busts to the use of confidential informants — someone who might be in legal trouble due to drugs, but works for the sheriff’s office and solicits information — as well as the tips his office and the Athens County Major Crimes Unit receives weekly.
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“An informant would say ‘I can go buy ‘X’ amount of drugs from (someone),’” Smith said.
His office would then give the informant between $20 and $100, fit him or her with a wire, set up a van and listen to the conversation had between a dealer and the informant.
While informants act as one source of finding prominent drugs in the county, Smith and the Athens Major Crimes Unit also perform off of tips that find their way to their offices.
“Personally, I’ll get five to 10 tips a week,” Smith said.
The Athens Major Crimes Unit will get 30 to 50 tips a week. This unit is a program the sheriff’s office recently joined, which links them with surrounding law enforcement agencies to work on crime investigations together.
“It’s a very lucrative business that (drug dealers have),” Smith said. “Until they get caught.”
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