Heroin resurfaces as drug of choice

Heroin use is on the rise in Sussex County. Police departments throughout the Cape Region say it’s here, more pure and more dangerous than ever.

As a report by the Cape Gazette’s Melissa Steele recently detailed, just two years ago the majority of local drug arrests were for abuse of prescription pills, which were relatively easy to obtain and distribute.

But new procedures have curbed that market. In August, Delaware officials unveiled a new prescription monitoring program that tracks controlled substances, allowing doctors and police to track pill users. Other steps, including reducing the number of pills Medicaid pays for and changing the formula of the pills, have made it harder to obtain and use illegal prescription drugs.

Many of the popular pills, such as oxycodone, Percocet and Demerol, are chemically similar to heroin; they affect a user’s brain in a manner similar to the morphine these drugs were developed to replace.

Users who can no longer get pills are turning to street drugs, and in Delaware, the heroin they are finding is 99 percent pure.

Police say producers in Mexico and Afghanistan, out to expand their markets, are flooding the East Coast, including the Cape Region, with the drug.

A review of Cape Gazette police reports shows even the resort area has seen an increase in robberies and other incidents that appear to be drug related: users desperate to get even a small amount of money to stay high.

The current upsurge in heroin use will likely bring in its wake not only more robberies and home invasions, but also an increase in overdoses and deaths.

Many who became caught up in using prescription drugs to get high were young people, and their families have paid a high price for pill abuse. While pill use may be on the wane, students and out-of-work graduates are now at high risk to experiment with heroin.

This an issue families, schools and community groups cannot afford to ignore.

Heroin is here. It is potent, cheap and dangerous.