Until recently, Evansville has largely dodged the return of heroin to the Midwest. But authorities say that has changed, and the drug is becoming prevalent in the community.
In fact, the opitate-based street drug is at least partly to blame for five deaths in Vanderburgh County so far in 2015, according to the coroner's office.
"It's really getting to be a problem," Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Nicholas Hermann said. "Something where we're going to see a lot of overdoses, we're going to see a lot of crime associated with it, as they've seen in Indianapolis and other areas of the state. It has just been slow in getting here."
Earlier this year — after Vanderburgh County had two confirmed heroin overdose deaths within about a week of each other — Coroner Annie Groves remained hopeful that such cases would not become as common for her as they had already become for some of her Hoosier colleagues. But since then, there have been three more deaths blamed on the drug. The five fatalities have been a 24-year-old woman, a 31-year-old man, both in February; a 57-year-old woman in March; a 42-year-old woman in July; and a 57-year-old man in September.
"We used to never see these (heroin deaths), and if we did it was of somebody who was visiting who was from out of town," Vandeburgh's Chief Deputy Coroner Steve Lockyear told the Courier & Press recently.
Before coming to the coroner's office, Lockyear had a long career with the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office.
The heroin resurgence had, at first, inexplicably seemed to miss the Tri-State region even as metro areas such as St. Louis, Indianapolis, Louisville and Cincinnati saw deaths attributed to the drug skyrocket. In Indiana, there were 111 heroin-related deaths in 2012 and 152 in 2013. Statewide figures for 2014 have not been released yet.
Many local law enforcement officials previously told the Courier & Press that they had seen a slight uptick of use of the drug over the past few years. That was concerning in itself because of its deadly potential. However, there was little to suggest that it had become a major drug issue here yet, they said. Before this February, the Vanderburgh coroners's office hadn't been called to a suspected heroin death in more than two years.
In May, Evansville police announced that authorities had been investigating a suspected drug trafficking operation that was believed to have been responsible for bringing several drugs into the area, including methamphetamine and heroin. Several people investigators say are connected to the case have since been arrested.
There have been plenty of prescription drug deaths here in recent years — many of which were blamed on opitate-based narcotics. Prescription dug overdoses contributed to 46 deaths in Vanderburgh County last year, making it the county's No. 1 unnatural killer. There were 44 deaths attributed to prescription drugs the year before.
Often, those hooked on opiate painkillers will switch to heroin because it is much cheaper than pills per hit once heroin is established in an area, or if the user no longer has easy access to the prescriptions. One of the unknowns about heroin is that there is no way to determine how potent it is until it is taken, often intravenously. That makes catastrophic overdoses a real possibility with each use.
There has been another recent, alarming trend involving prescription drugs, Lockyear said. In years past, it has been very easy for authorities to determine how an overdose victim obtained their drugs, he said. Now that is becoming more murky, which suggests that more people are getting prescription drugs in illicit ways.
"This year, in about half (of the pill overdose deaths), we don't have a source. (That) is scary because that means they're getting them off the street. It was unusual for us two years ago or a year ago to not know exactly where the drugs came from," Lockyear said.
Both the Warrick and Vanderburgh County sheriff offices agreed to equip their deputies with Narcan in October 2014 at the insistence of an alliance of local faith groups. The antidote — a drug that can reverse the effects of an opiate overdose, whether it's caused by a prescription pill or heroin, if administered immediately — has been on area ambulances since the mid-1980s.
The Evansville Police Department started a Narcan pilot program this summer at the urging of the same alliance, Congregations Acting for Justice and Empowerment. Sgt. Jason Cullum, the spokesman for the Evansville department, said the pilot program will run through the end of the year. He said since the initiative was implemented, Evansville officers have administered one dose of Narcan. The patient was revived, though Cullum noted that medics who were also responding to the incident used a second dose of the antidote as well.
Cullum said it has not been decided if carrying Narcan will be permanent addition for officers. However, he noted that all of the doses acquired through the program will remain on hand even if the pilot is not extended. Narcan has a shelf life of two years. It is also available by prescription thanks to a 2015 state law. The hope, according to state Sen. Jim Merritt, R- Indianapolis — the law's author — is that friends and family members of users get the antidote in case they encounter an overdose.
Cullum acknowledged that heroin has been trickling into the area the past few years. According to figures from the Evansville Vanderburgh County Drug Task Force, about a pound of heroin was seized in Evansville in 2014. In 2013, that figure was 161 grams, about one-third of that, and in 2012, it was only 33 grams.
"It has been in Indianapolis for a long time, and now it's starting to come to Evansville," Cullum said. " ... Keep in mind, it's a drug that we didn't in our community a few years ago."
So far in 2015, authorities have seized 125 grams of heroin, according to Evansville police Lt. Tim Everley, who is the head of the task force. While the total amount is less than last year, most of the 2014 amount came from one seizure. But Everley pointed to the rise in heroin-related deaths as evidence that the drug is becoming a problem in the area.
Meth continues to be the much more widespread drug problem in the area. However, as the crystal version of meth that originates from Mexico becomes more common in Evansville, so has heroin, according to Everley, because its being transported by the cartels using the same supply network.
"A lot of it has got to do with how the Mexicans smuggle drugs now. They control the drug industry," he said. "They're mixing loads. We used to never get mixed loads of dope — you used to just stick with one. Now (we'll bust) a load of dope out on the highway and it'll have heroin, marijuana, cocaine and meth."
Another sign that heroin is now entrenched into the drug network of Evansville — it's getting much cheaper.
Everley said the drug has recently been bought for as little as $80 per gram. It had been averaging about $200 per gram, and three years ago it was as expensive as $350 per gram.
"The drug market is like any business, as the supply goes up the price goes down," he said.
During a speech to Indiana's newly formed statewide drug task force last week, Hermann used most of his speech to address meth, but he also acknowledged that heroin is now in the area. Now is the time to address the problems created by heroin — a drug that ravages the communities it infiltrates, he said. The panel, which met at the University of Southern Indiana, was created by Gov. Mike Pence in September.
"We need to educate people. I think it is something that the community needs to look at and talk about. It's a horribly addictive drug and it is typically injected," Herman told reporters before his task force speech. "That's an opportunity to get out and talk about if you're going to put something directly into your bloodstream, the horrible effects that can have. It's time to have those conversations: to talk about the diseases that can be transmitted because of dirty needles; to talk about all those other issues that come with it."