While alcohol, domestic violence and marijuana-related crimes still keep police busy, another alarming element has reared its ugly head in the last year – Heroin. Local law enforcement agencies have made dozens of arrests in 2009 involving the resurgence of heroin in Chenango County.
“Most of what we’re seeing has been happening since late winter of 2008. Basically there’s a lot more prevalence of heroin on streets,” said Acting Chenango County Sheriff Ernie R. Cutting. “Currently about half of the calls received in our detective’s division involve crimes directly or indirectly related to heroin.”
Norwich City Police Chief Joseph Angelino agrees. “The department hasn’t seen this level of heroin activity since sometime in the 1970s,” he said.
On Sept. 30 the city police and the New York State Police joined forces to raid a Norwich residence on Lee Avenue suspected of trafficking heroin and charged two people with high level felonies – 39-year-old David A. Cahill and his 21-year-old live-in girlfriend, Rachael A. Cummings.
Since Sept. 19, the Sheriff’s Office and the Norwich Police have charged seven different people with possession of heroin; two of those were felony level arrests.
“There’s a lot more crime you’re seeing that’s related to individuals seeking out the drugs or a means to pay for them,” said Cutting.
The Sheriff said in addition to an increasing trend of heroin arrests, his office has also seen a simultaneous increase in burglaries and larcenies.
In July, a rash of crimes – including several auto thefts, a home burglary, and a number of vehicle break-ins – occurred in the Chenango Lake area over a three-week period.
In another case, two suspects allegedly victimized more than 21 people in the Towns of Norwich, North Norwich and Plymouth by stealing items from their unlocked cars over a month-long spree. Investigators also believe the crimes were motivated by a need for drugs.
The sheriff said “car shopping” was a popular crime for many substance abusers looking to make a fast buck by stealing an iPod, GPS or similar device from inside an unlocked car.
“We can’t yet confirm that theses cases involved heroin, but this is the sort of activity that has been on the rise,” explained Cutting.
“They just move on down the street. If this one’s locked, they go to the next,. If that one’s not locked, they take whatever they can find inside,” said Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Richard Cobb.
“Some of the most common consequences for a heroin user are legal issues and the drug itself can be expensive. People who are using often can spend 150 to 250 dollars a day on the drug. They steal, break in people’s homes, turn to forms of prostitution and will do just about anything else to get the drug,” said Chenango County and Family Court Drug Treatment Coordinator James Everard.
The most recent September drug raid resulted in Cahill and Cummings having identical charges of third degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a class B felony, filed against them. The crime carries a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in state prison and police seized about $180 worth of packaged heroin. The investigation spanned the summer months and included police surveillance that allegedly recorded the couple selling heroin out of their home.
Heroin generally appears as brown or white powder. Cutting pointed out that on most occasions his office was only encountering a white substance, similar to baking soda in consistency and appearance.
The drug is typically received in small amounts – often less than a tablespoon, wrapped in wax paper.
Everard said the sugar packet-sized portions often weight less than a gram and cost between 20 and 25 dollars. Users usually only get one dose per packet, he added.
Cutting said traffickers often sold stacks of the drug in the smaller $20 portions, ten at a time, for between $150 to $200. Cutting said traffickers referred to these larger amounts as “decks.”
The drug can be snorted or processed and injected.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) describes the effects of heroin as follows: “After an intravenous injection of heroin, users report feeling a surge of euphoria (rush) accompanied by dry mouth, a warm flushing of the skin, heaviness of the extremities, and clouded mental functioning. Following this initial euphoria, the user goes ‘on the nod,’ an alternately wakeful and drowsy state. Users who do not inject the drug may not experience the initial rush, but other effects are the same.”
For more information, visit their web site at www.nida.nih.gov.
Heroin, morphine, OxyContin and several other prescription drugs belong to the class of drugs known as opiates.
“Basically these prescription drugs are a more refined and processed form of heroin,” said Everard.
He said it was common for users to abuse both prescription drugs and heroin since the effects were so similar. Everard also pointed out that despite the recent rise in street heroin activity, prescription drug abuse was far more common, especially in the younger generations. “One may lead to the other,” he added.
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Service Coordinator Victoria McElligott also noted that more people were coming in to receive treatment for heroin and opiate addiction.
“Any drug you can get in a big city, you can get in Chenango County. With opiates, usually they’re prescribed them legitimately and get hooked. When the source of the drug runs out and they can’t fill the subscription, people tend to find something else,” she said.
With the use of heroin, McElligott noted that any person injecting will have higher incidents of HIV, AIDS and Hepatitis.
“There is not always a clean needle and in addition you don’t think logically when you’re under the influence of a drug or when an addict feels a strong need,” she said.
To contact Chenango County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Service, call 337-1680.
Norwich Police Officer Michael Purdy said most of the local heroin originates from Mexico and is a more addictive and unpredictable substance than other street drugs.
He explained that each time the drug changed hands, dealers would “cut” the material into smaller portions and add in other substances in order to increase profit, essentially watering down the drug.
“From one dealer to the next, depending on where it comes from, how far and how many people have cut it, the potency of the drug varies greatly. So a local addict who is using less potent material and buys it in a purer form from another dealer runs the risk overdosing and even death,” he said. Purdy also noted that there was not way to know what the dealers were cutting the drug with.
The Norwich Police recently received a $288,188 federal grant to hire a full-time detective and purchase covert police equipment, primarily aimed at local drug enforcement. Norwich also now has a certified drug detection K-9 unit working for the department.
Both Angelino and Cutting agreed that the rise in heroin activity was a concern for law enforcement and each was dedicating additional resources to combat the threat.