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Heroin cases double in Miami Valley

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Crime Lab director reports that the agency now handles more cases involving heroin than crack.

By Lucas Sullivan, Staff Writer Updated 11:35 AM Monday, May 11, 2009

The surge in heroin use has authorities from Kettering to Piqua and Lebanon to Oakwood struggling to keep up with what officials say is now the most popular drug used and trafficked in the Miami Valley.

Ken Betz, director for the Miami Valley Crime Lab, said his heroin caseload nearly doubled in just one year, from 592 cases in 2007 to 1,078 last year.

Through April of this year, the lab has handled more heroin cases than crack cases.

And Betz said his lab is on pace for “another record year.”

Lab supervisor Mike Wathen said 45 percent of those cases are in the city of Dayton, with the rest split up between Shelby, southern Montgomery and Warren counties.

Heroin has become popular, investigators said, because of its evolution as a more user-friendly drug.

When first introduced, heroin had to be loaded into a syringe and injected. Now it can be snorted, smoked or injected.

And it isn’t just the volume of heroin cases that’s startling investigators.

The quality of heroin is gradually increasing.

“The heroin we are testing is more pure in its quality, meaning it’s not chopped up and mixed with as many chemicals,” Betz said.

Drug unit detectives said that while the quality of heroin ebbs and flows, Betz’s data has them concerned a more potent form of heroin could lead to more overdoses.

“They could chart that, but a (heroin) user wouldn’t necessarily know the purity of what they are taking,” Dayton police Lt. Matt Carper said.

Despite the increase in popularity and purity, heroin overdose deaths in the Miami Valley continue to hover in the mid 70s to high 60s, Betz said.

“What is surprising is how quickly it has blanketed the area,” Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer said. “Just a few years ago, heroin was 20 percent of our drug unit’s workload. Now, it’s 60 percent.”

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