Other stories in this Special Report:
From the Attorney General
Attorney General’s new Heroin Unit assists local communities
Forums point to need for holistic solution
OPOTA offers new heroin course
Drug-related resources
Q&A: Insights from outreach: Coordinator is a force multiplier for grassroots efforts
Lives forever changed
The opiate crisis has evolved, snaring our state in a deadly progression from prescription pills to heroin. It’s a familiar pattern with gruesome consequences. And it’s playing out in many states, including Ohio.
Prescription pain medications flood a state — through pill mills, overprescribing, and other means — leading a large segment of the population to become addicted. Authorities respond, taking enforcement and legislative action to reduce the pill supply. As the measures take hold, pills become more difficult and expensive to get, prompting users to turn to an even more addictive and deadly opiate: heroin. Suppliers gladly meet the demand with a cheap, easily tapped stream of the drug.
The dynamics of addiction and economic realities contribute to the problem. As addicts need more and more pills to get high or avoid withdrawal, the cost of addiction can become too great. With the price of heroin averaging about one-tenth that of prescription pills, many addicts make the switch. Surprisingly, some individuals skip pills altogether and head straight to heroin.
Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office and others statewide have mobilized to address a new and widespread model of heroin use and distribution.
What’s different? Heroin is everywhere — from upscale suburbs to inner-city neighborhoods — and anyone who can pay for it is a prospect. For many young people, its use carries little stigma. Dealers deliver, eliminating addicts’ need to find a fix in some shadowy alley, as might have been the norm in the past. Mexican cartels channel heroin through decentralized distribution networks and communicate orders to their dealers through disposable phones and game systems.
“Over and over sheriffs, police, and coroners tell me how bad it is. The fact is, many different segments — law enforcement, coroners, judges, treatment professionals, community groups, doctors, educators — will have to work together to solve this problem,” Attorney General DeWine said. “Unfortunately, there are people out there who don’t believe heroin is in their communities. The numbers tell a different story.”