Coalition works to combat heroin problem

Four days without suboxone — a drug used to wean addicts off heroin — Troy York said he and his wife couldn’t fight the urge anymore. So the Greenville residents drove to Dayton recently and sold a pair of shoes, and then used the money to buy drugs.

“When you’re sick with it, you feel like you’re dying,” York said.

And that fear, he said, outweighs the fear of dying because of an overdose.

“I had to resuscitate her twice,” York said of his wife, Courtney Tolliver. “You need it.”

The pair were arrested Oct. 22 on warrants and drug possession charges after Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies pulled over their van on Gettysburg Avenue and found a heroin capsule and marijuana in their vehicle. York admitted to buying the drugs in Dayton, stating that once they were kicked out of a treatment program in Richmond, they were unable to fight the urge to use.

It’s a common issue, said Sheriff Phil Plummer, and one the Drug Free Coalition he created last year is working to combat.

“It’s very disturbing. We’re the hub of Ohio for heroin,” he said. “I bet we arrest 15 people a day because of a drug problem. We can’t arrest our way out of this because of the addiction.”

The average age of a person arrested for drugs is 32, and the average age of someone who dies from a heroin overdose is 42, according to Montgomery County Jail statistics. And while Dayton does make up the bulk of arrests, Plummer said there are heroin addicts and subsequent arrests in every community in the county—no one is immune, he said.

The coalition is working on the heroin problem on a variety of fronts. Partnering with Dayton police, along with federal law enforcement such as the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Plummer said officers are communicating about what they’re seeing and what’s working at stopping the drugs. They’re also working together to bust dealers and stem the flow of drugs into the Miami Valley. Within the past eight months, undercover agents have seized more than $2 million in cash from the drug cartel near Miller Lane in Butler Twp. — an area Plummer said is a common meeting ground for those bringing drugs to the area.

But enforcement and arrests are only a small piece of the puzzle.

Once a person is convicted of a felony drug crime, they are ordered into a treatment program. But Plummer said he’d like to partner the coalition with resources from the Alcohol Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board to offer more treatment options before people find themselves criminally charged. In the end, Plummer said, it could save taxpayers thousands since treatment could cost less than the thousands of dollars spent in the court and incarceration process.

“Some people say it’s not our job to help them. Well, you wouldn’t feel that way if it was your child,” Plummer said.

For more information on the coalition, www.mcdrugfree.org.

About the Author