Heroin’s Cost Doesn’t End at Street Level

Throughout Cape May County, parents mourn the loss of their children who used heroin and died. Young children may be living with grandparents or other family members due to their parents’ death caused by using heroin. Still other families are forever scarred by the imprisonment of members who sold heroin and are paying the price.
The real cost to society is high because of the low price of heroin on county streets and roads.
The heroin user of today may be a young adult, perhaps 18-25 years old. Many never set out to use heroin, and many were using legal prescription drugs that hooked them. When the prescription ran out, and physicians would no longer prescribe the medication, many turn to the streets for a less expensive high, a feeling of euphoria that, for at least five in the past month, proved fatal.
This newspaper has conveyed the gripping story of a Villas father whose son died exactly as stated above. A Lower Township mother told the Herald she found her adult son using heroin, and in stoic fashion, began planning his funeral, since she knows that is where it will end.
Still, there is a fascination among the young to try heroin, to tempt fate, to dodge the bullet until, at last, the bullet finds its mark and heroin has completed its task and claimed another life.
Cape May County Prosecutor Robert Taylor wants the public to know of the abundance of the drug, and that his office is working – in silence and undercover – to seek out and prosecute the kingpins who channel the killing drug from metropolitan areas, like Newark, Camden and Atlantic City to Wildwood, Middle and Lower townships, and every other municipality in the county.
A sampling of releases from Taylor’s department reveals the problem and a small part of what law enforcement is doing to stem it:
Jan. 2, 2013: A joint release from Prosecutor’s Office, Wildwood and Middle Township chiefs of police announcing arrest of two Wildwood residents Dec. 27, 2012 in Middle Township. As a result, 210 bags of heroin were seized with an estimated value of $4,200.
March 7, 2013: Taylor and Lower Township police chief announced the March 5 arrest of a Lower Township man for distribution of heroin. The arrest was the result of a joint narcotics investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office Gangs, Guns and Narcotics Task Force and Lower Township Police Department.
May 3, 2013: Taylor and Wildwood police chief announced the May 2 arrest of three in Wildwood. Among the items seized: 47 bags of heroin, paraphernalia and over $7,740 in currency.
May 8, 2013: Taylor and Wildwood police chief announced the May 8 arrest of two Wildwood residents and a juvenile. Among items recovered during the arrest were 30 bags of heroin.
Nov. 28, 2012: Wildwood Police Detective Division and the Prosecutor’s Office Gangs, Guns and Narcotics Task Force ended a four-week investigation in narcotics sales. “Quantities” of C.D.S. heroin…were received.”
“It seems almost epidemic to me,” said Lynne Krukosky, executive director of Cape Assist, 3819 New Jersey Ave., Wildwood, in a telephone interview. The organization works to prevent and treat substance abuse through counseling, not methadone.
“It’s very disconcerting,” said Krukosky of the young population that is finding heroin attractive. “It is very different than years ago when only a few did it (heroin), who were at the end of the road in their addiction. Today is happens rapidly with young people.”
“I can tell you most need prescription drugs, and that leads to heroin. There is a strong connection a lot of folks don’t realize,” Krukosky said.
“It (heroin) has crescendoed in our county,” she added, and cited a statistic from 2006 to 2011 (2012 results were not tabulated.) – our heroin and opiate admissions increased by 154 percent for residents aged 18-25 years. “Forty-three percent of all county treatment admissions (folks going into treatment) are for opiate and heroin,” she said, adding that this figure comes from the available 2011 data.
Krukosky cited an upcoming data collection known as “The Pride Survey” that will likely begin in the fall. The goal of this study, the first of its kind, will be to gather “real statistics for our county” from seventh, ninth and 11th grade students in all county schools regarding drug use. She noted that, in the past, state statistics had to be used. This will gather pertinent facts for in-county use by educators and social work organizations on how best to address the problem.
“Because of the law, there will be parental permission first,” Krukosky said.
Krukosky also cited a fall meeting in Lower Township that Mayor Michael Beck is planning with all stakeholders to address the drug problem in that municipality.
“He is going about it all the right way, talking to all the sectors to see what their input is,” Krukosky said.
“In one way, it is sad we have a problem. In another way all the people who should be are hustling to do something about it,” Krukosky said.
At the county’s Department of Human Services, Director Patricia DeVaney sees the impact heroin is having, both human and financial. Her data mirrors Krukosky’s. In the 2012 “Substance Abuse Overview 2011 Cape May County” issued by the state Department of Human Services, Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services, “Cape May County admission for treatment for heroin and other opiates increased by 154.56 percent from 2006-2011 from 132 admissions to 336 admissions for residents 25 years old and less. It was the third highest percentage increase in the state. Only Monmouth and Ocean counties were higher.” Statewide, the increase was 99 percent.
The report also stated, “In 2011, heroin/opiates abuse was the highest percentage reason for admissions in 11 of 16 municipalities. Exceptions were Dennis and Middle townships, Stone Harbor, West Wildwood and West Cape May.
In 2012, the county spent $124,331 on detox and residential services for 73 individuals. Some received detox only, some rehabilitation, some both, Devaney noted.
Of those 73 placements, 29 (40 percent) were admitted with heroin as “drug of choice.” Of those admissions, 334 (46 percent) were between the ages of 20-29, and 78 percent were under age 39, however, all of those were not solely for heroin, Devaney said.
Admissions for treatment grew from 2009-2011.
In 2009: 1,164 admitted, 673 for alcohol, 499 for heroin/opiates, 116 for cocaine, 231 for marijuana and 41 others.
In 2010: 1,216 admitted, 703 for alcohol, 593 for heroin and other opiates, 106 for cocaine, 259 for marijuana and 55 other.
In 2011, 1,957 admitted, 593 for alcohol, 814 heroin/opiates, 140 cocaine, 338 for marijuana, and 73 other.
Devaney cited the “South Jersey Initiative” a program created by Gov. Christie Whitman for those in rural areas lacking treatment facilities. Most younger adults, up to age 24, can get intensive outpatient treatment under the initiative if they live in South Jersey, she added.
“What is underdeveloped in the state is a relapse prevention program so they (addicts) will not be put back into the same environment,” Devaney said. Such programs exist in Camden and Passaic counties. They teach addicts how to get jobs, develop social skills and perhaps get a GED (general educational development) certificate that will make them have hope for their future, she added.
“I think that should be a priority in terms of system development. It will be once the Affordable Care Act begins,” Devaney said.
The focus of prevention should, in Devaney’s opinion, “be to get people to understand the connection between prescription drugs. They might get 30 pills from a doctor for a toothache, and they don’t need them all, so they put them in the medicine cabinet, and don’t think any more of them. They should get rid of them, take them to a drop box (in police departments),” said Devaney.
That way, potentially addicting prescription drugs would not entice young people, whose first step onto the road to addiction may be a pain killer found in their own bathroom.