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Needles have been found lately all over Cherokee County.
Andrews – Every morning, county recreation employees search for hypodermic needles left behind by drug users who loiter in Valley River Park on Wilhide Street.
The prevalence of needles also extends to the heart of Andrews, where workers often must pick up syringes before downtown fills with people. Such was the case on the morning of Oktoberfest on Sept. 28.
Sometimes, county employees find enough used syringes to fill a 2-gallon canister.
To combat loitering and drug use in the dugouts, lawmakers plan to install security cameras throughout Valley River Park, similar to the setup at Judi Nichols Park on Main Street. The proposed cost for a new camera system is $4,277, though lawmakers are seeking competitive bids.
Cherokee County taxpayers would cover half the cost of the camera system. Andrews lawmakers are contemplating whether to seek help from the county to cover the broadband internet service needed to livestream the surveillance for law enforcement use.
“There are drug users within the city limits who don’t care where they dispose of their paraphernalia,” Mayor James Reid said. “All of our youth football and baseball teams practice at Valley River Park, and I think it would be safer for the community if we had cameras there.
“The cameras at Judi Nichols Park are making all the difference in the world because drug users who loiter there are pushed all the way back to the river now. Don’t get me wrong; they’re not leaving, they’re just going out of view of the cameras.”
According to county law enforcement officials, citizens struggling with addiction use hypodermic needles to mainly inject three drugs – heroin, crushed opioid pills and methamphetamine.
“Most people who use meth smoke it, but there are some who use needles,” Sheriff Derrick Palmer said. He added that heroin is making a “comeback” in Cherokee County because it has become more difficult to obtain large amounts of prescription opioid pills.
“Drugs typically run on 20-year cycles; they all peak at different times,” Palmer said. “As doctors started prescribing opioid pills, heroin use went down because drug users could get pills legally from pharmacies.
“They were over-prescribing opioids in our area, and a few years ago we really cracked down on those doctors. Well, the side effect of that is now drug users can no longer get pills like they used to, so heroin has started making a comeback.”
The total amount of drugs seized by the sheriff’s office in 2018 had an estimated street value of more than $267,000, according to data provided by law enforcement officials. The 12-page report lists just about every drug one could think of, except hallucinogens. However, two women from out of town were arrested with lysergic acid diethylamide, also known as LSD, just last week.
The list of drugs confiscated last year is saturated with various forms of opioids, in addition to methamphetamines and marijuana. Officials say the situation was much different a decade ago.
“It used to be meth and crack cocaine, but heroin is exploding now,” Chief Deputy Joe Wood said. “It’s not unusual for us to find heroin every other day. Along with that, the drug users have to supply that addiction, so they steal stuff. A high percentile of our larcenies and property crimes stem from someone supporting their drug use.”
So far this year, the sheriff’s office has seized more than 59 grams of heroin. That figure may not seem like a lot until one realizes the typical dosage unit of heroin is 1/10th of a gram. Moreover, the amount of heroin seized so far this year is only 3 grams less than the total amount local police confiscated in 2015, 2016, and 2017 combined.
Law enforcement can only guess how much heroin is sold in Cherokee County before they bust a suspected dealer. Officials worry that a heroin comeback could bring more fatal overdoses, especially with the increase in fentanyl-laced product being distributed across the United States.
“We’re also concerned about law enforcement officers coming in contact with fentanyl and overdosing,” Palmer said. “One speck of the fentanyl-based drugs could seep through your skin and cause a fatal overdose.”
According to the latest available state data, there was a combined total of five heroin and/or fentanyl-related deaths in Cherokee County in 2016-17. Officials say the statewide number of fatal opioid-related overdoses decreased in 2018, compared to the prior year; however, a breakdown of last year’s county statistics has not yet been released by the medical examiner’s office.
Regardless of what the statistics show, law enforcement officials say the number of non-fatal overdoses, which may more accurately illustrate the prevalence of opioid use, will never be fully known.
“The availability of Narcan has changed the game a little bit,” Palmer said. “More often, we’re finding that drug users will have Narcan in the house. So when people overdose in their presence, they’re bringing them back themselves. So, we’re not getting reports of all the overdoses that are happening.”