Herion
Lexington, KY - While nearby metropolitan areas such as Louisville and Cincinnati have experienced a recent increase in heroin-related crimes, no such surge has been experienced in Lexington. Local authorities say the trend is unlikely to trickle into Fayette County, though the possibility hasn’t been ruled out by some officials who say the numbers indicate otherwise.
According to the Louisville CourierJournal, the amount of heroin seized by authorities in Louisville escalated from 104 grams in 2008 to nearly 7,100 through the first eight months this year. Heroin-related arrests also rose during the past four years from 32 to 364.
Those totals easily eclipse those reported by the Lexington Police Department, which indicate the Lexington area has been averaging four heroin cases a month for the past several months.
“Thankfully, we have not seen the increase that Louisville and other municipalities have,” said Lexington Police Department spokesperson Sherelle Roberts. “Based upon our records, our numbers are very miniscule compared to the other municipalities in our region.”
Still, there are other stats that suggest Lexington is dangerously close to joining its neighbors.
According to Van Ingram, executive director for the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, statewide numbers of heroin submissions sent to the state crime lab have more than doubled in less than three years. There were 451 heroin submissions statewide in 2010, but the number of submissions through three quarters of 2012 total 1,074.
“It’s safe to say this is a problem that’s on the rise,” Ingram said.
Katherine Paisley, a Lexington criminal defense lawyer who spent two years as prosecuting attorney, said the rise in heroin-related activity could stem from the growing prescription medication epidemic.
Paisley explained that as local and federal law enforcement agencies continue to crack down harder on the prescription pill problem, addicts and abusers are looking elsewhere. Many forms of prescription medication are opium-based, making heroin a viable alternative. The street price of heroin is relatively cheaper and could be easier to obtain, thanks to a strong focus being placed on controlling pill traffic. According to the Courier-Journal, the painkiller Opana sells on the street for between $150 and $170 a pill, while heroin goes for roughly $25 a dose.
Paisley said there has been discussion among lawyers regarding the surge in neighboring areas, but that the trend has yet to materialize in Lexington.
“They [pills] are insanely expensive, outrageous. I have a couple of clients, and it was a $300-a-day habit,” Paisley said. “It would be a lot cheaper to get some heroin. I had one client that would drive to Cincinnati to get heroin. But I feel like if he could get it here, he would have.”
If recent history is any indication, then Lexington could be sheltered as various crime trends and surges haven’t mirrored those in Cincinnati and Louisville.
Since the economic malaise of 2008, the Lexington area — like other communities across the United States — has experienced a decrease in violent crime while there was an increase in non-violent property crime. For example, there were 19 homicides in Lexington during 2010. That number dipped to 15 last year, and 11 have been reported thus far in 2012. By comparison there were more than 68 murders in Cincinnati in 2010 and the total for this year is projected at 71.
Several ancillary factors could affect those totals, such as total population, population density, economic conditions and even the weather. Those individual conditions come together to create a unique scenario for each city.
“We don’t really see any kind of causality between crime rate in Louisville or Cincinnati or any other area,” Roberts said. “From a statistical standpoint, the crime rates and crime issues don’t directly affect [Lexington]. It’s more the environmental causes that push the trend.”
Ingram, however, indicated factors on the individual level have a bigger impact.
A former police officer of 23 years and a past president of the Kentucky Association of Chiefs of Police, Ingram said he noticed a rise in heroin-related media reports in central Ohio three years ago and had hoped it would go around Kentucky. But he said the conditions have altered the landscape and explained that substance abuse of any drug depends on four things: price, availability, perception of risk and public attitude. Each of those factors has shifted with regard to heroin in recent years, ranging from its price to a change in public perception.
“People of our generation got all those messages on heroin back in the 1970s — that this was where you didn’t go, a line you don’t cross. I don’t think that message is out there now,” Ingram said. “The 20-somethings of today don’t have that fear, so the perception of risk is lower.