Heroin epidemic continues: Myrtle Beach police respond to 9 drug overdoses in one week

In the hustle and bustle of the holiday season this past week while others were shopping, wrapping presents and baking goodies, nine people in Myrtle Beach were overdosing on heroin — a drug that has stolen at least 70 lives this year in Horry County.

Capt. David Knipes of the Myrtle Beach Police Department says they have responded to 170 drug overdose reports this year, averaging out to a little more than two a week. The nine last week “would seem higher than normal,” he said, but police have yet to unlock a rhyme or reason for the occasional spikes they see.

Police and medics were able to respond in time to revive eight of the nine who overdosed with the drug Narcan, which reverses the effects of heroin and opiate overdoses. The overdose victims — male and female, black and white — ranged in age from 18 to 65 years old.

From lower-income homes to country club dwellings, the calls for service echoed the threats of a drug county officials say does not discriminate.

Police were called to an overdose on the roadway of Blue Street at 8:26 p.m. on Dec. 12. Fifty-three-year-old Robert Dwayne Steele was found unresponsive. He died the following day.

Minutes later, at 8:45 p.m. Dec. 12, police were called to a North Ocean Boulevard apartment where a 32-year-old woman reportedly overdosed at her friend’s kitchen table. She was revived and transported to Grand Strand Medical Center, where she later told police she used heroin, according to an incident report.

Shortly before 11 a.m. the following day, Myrtle Beach police responded to the Quail Marsh Apartments on Greens Boulevard for an 18-year-old woman, who reportedly passed out from an overdose. A neighbor called 911 and started CPR until medics responded to revive the woman with Narcan, according to an incident report.

At 11:45 p.m. Dec. 13, police and medics were called to an apartment on North Kings Highway where a 31-year-old woman was found passed out in a bathroom from an apparent heroin overdose, according to a police report. She was administered Narcan and transported to Grand Strand Medical Center, where police noted they gave her information about where to go for help with her addiction.

Knipes said that officers are “trying to utilize all resources available to break the cycle” of addiction that is plaguing the county, letting overdose victims know where and how they can get help.

Heroin has claimed at least 70 lives in Horry County in the first 10 months of 2016. Over the first 306 days of this year, Horry County Fire Rescue responded to and treated 674 people with Narcan at a cost of about $50 a dose.

The county was recently cited as having the most heroin overdoses in the state, but another drug often sold as heroin is claiming more lives as well.

Tamara Willard, chief deputy coroner of Horry County, said in October 15 people have died after using fentanyl or a dangerous cocktail of the potent painkiller mixed with heroin.

And all of the overdoses are not coming at the pump of a syringe.

At 1:37 a.m. Wednesday, a woman told Myrtle Beach police she saw a 49-year-old man snort two lines of heroin and then start gasping for air and growing “very pale” at an apartment on 77th Avenue North, according to an incident report. She called 911 and told police the man had been clean for six months until Wednesday night when medics were called to revive him with Narcan, the report stated.

Horry County hosts two in-patient facilities for those struggling with addiction: Lighthouse Care Center of Conway and Shoreline Behavioral Health Services, also based in Conway. Shoreline offers group counseling, individual counseling, intensive outpatient programs, adolescent and family counseling, drug and alcohol testing services and operates a women’s residential program.

Lighthouse is a psychiatric hospital facility that offers inpatient treatment for mental illness and substance abuse disorders, according to its website. It offers free in-person or over-the-phone assessments 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Narcotics Anonymous, a nonprofit society of men and women who have battled drug addictions, is also available to help recovering addicts.

This story was originally published December 19, 2016 at 6:55 PM with the headline "Heroin epidemic continues: Myrtle Beach police respond to 9 drug overdoses in one week."