Heroin use on the rise in SC

In 40 years of working drug cases in York County, Marvin Brown has seen drug trends come and go.

Heroin, which Brown said was very popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has not only made a comeback but is at the center of a nationwide epidemic causing increased overdose deaths and sparking concern among law enforcement and health officials across the country.

The York County Multijurisdictional Drug Enforcement Unit in 2012 had 10 heroin cases, according to Brown, commander of the unit. That number more than doubled to 24 in 2013 and again to 57 cases in 2014.

So far in 2015, the drug unit has had 77 heroin cases, Brown said. All numbers were drawn from the first 11 months of each year.

The Rock Hill Police Department had no heroin cases in 2012, according to numbers provided through a public records request. That number increased to 10 cases in 2013 and 11 cases in 2014. Rock Hill Police have recorded 28 heroin cases so far this year.

Clover Police had just one heroin case in 2012, four in 2013 and none in 2014, according to Lt. Tanner Davis. So far this year, they’ve had three cases.

Nationwide, heroin-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled from 2002 to 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Drug Enforcement Administration last month released its 2015 National Drug Threat Assessment, which found that drug overdose has surpassed motor vehicle accidents and firearms as the leading cause of injury and death in the United States.

“When I first came here (in 2006), we didn’t have any heroin overdoses,” said York County Coroner Sabrina Gast, whose office has handled several such cases this year. “We’re seeing that steady incline in heroin.”

‘It doesn’t take long to get addicted’

Prior to the 1980s, heroin users were typically older, but more people using the drug today are younger, Brown says. The CDC notes that heroin use has doubled in the last decade among young adults ages 18 to 25, and increases have also occurred in demographic groups with historically low rates of heroin use, including women and those with private insurance and higher income.

“We’ve had a problem the last three or four years of teenagers, 20-somethings and college kids getting into their parents’ and grandparents’ pain pills,” Brown said. “You start taking pain pills, it doesn’t take long to get addicted. Pain pills are synthetic heroin.”

Brown says of the three most common types of heroin – China white, black tar and brown – China white and black tar are seen most frequently around York County.

“Charlotte is a hub for black tar, and we’re a suburb of Charlotte,” he said. “We’re still seeing a lot of China white.”

Researchers say addiction to opiates and pain killers could be an underlying cause driving up heroin cases.

Heroin addiction sometimes starts in an “innocent” way, Brown said.

“You have a knee injury or shoulder injury, you’re prescribed a painkiller from a doctor – the next thing you’re know, you’re addicted to painkillers,” he said.

“Some people say, ‘I would never use heroin,’ but painkillers are pretty much the same thing,” he said. “The doctors won’t give it to you, you can’t steal it, so what’s your next step? You start buying heroin on the street.”

More people using both heroin and methamphetamine

Heroin users build a tolerance to the drug, Brown said. That makes it even more dangerous if they stop using the drug and then start again later.

“People normally overdose and die when they’ve been in jail and away from it,” he said. “Or, for some reason they’re away from heroin and come back and take the same amount they took before, and that’s what kills them.”

Death from heroin overdose doesn’t usually happen immediately after ingesting the drug.

“They have a decreased respiratory drive,” Gast said. “It’s an opiate-based drug, so it will decrease the heart rate and will also decrease the respiratory drive.”

Gast said many of the overdose deaths her office sees are caused by combinations of drugs.

A growing number of people who seek help from Keystone Substance Abuse Services are addicted to multiple substances, including heroin and methamphetamine, according to treatment director Janet Bunch.

“We’re seeing an increase across the board,” she said. “It’s not a large increase.”

Young adults ages 18 to 25 made up 30 percent of all admissions during the last year, a number Bunch called “devastating.”

“A lot of these are young people who had surgery, got addicted to opiate painkillers and moved on to heroin because it’s cheaper,” she said. “We are seeming more people who are using both heroin and methamphetamine at the same time. Back in the day when cocaine was more popular, people would combine cocaine and heroin – they would call it a speed ball. It appears they’re doing the same thing now but with meth.”

Keystone offers inpatient detox to help a patient get the drug out of their system, followed by outpatient treatment to help them learn how to live without the drug, Bunch said. There are also some medication-assisted treatments available for which Keystone is seeking funding.

Staying on top of the trends

The 16th Circuit Solicitor’s Office offers a drug treatment court, which gives nonviolent offenders who are dependent on alcohol or drugs to receive addiction treatment and rehabilitative services instead of jail.

“If we can fix the addiction, then we can fix the problem,” Brown said. “If we don’t, then we’ve charged you, we’ve put you in jail, you get out of jail, you go right back to what you were doing.”

After years of a focused effort by law enforcement on methamphetamine cases, the number of meth labs decreased. Brown said the drug unit is focusing more of its effort and manpower on heroin now, specifically the dealers and traffickers. In one recent bust, investigators seized 22 ounces of black tar heroin worth about $60,000, Brown said.

“We’ve had several overdose cases in this county that we’ve worked, and we’ve actually charged people with supplying the heroin to the people who died,” he said. “We don’t charge them with manslaughter; involuntary manslaughter only carries up to five years. Distribution of heroin carries up to 15 years.”

This story was originally published December 28, 2015 at 12:50 PM with the headline "Heroin use on the rise in SC."