Heroin bust signals growing problem in NKY

Heroin bust signals growing problem in NKY

A large heroin bust this week in Florence is the latest sign of the spike in use of the drug in northern Kentucky.

"We just talked about it at our last meeting with EMS coordinators, and everybody is seeing the same thing, a big increase in it," said Todd Schulkers, assistant chief of the Erlanger fire department.

A half-kilo of the narcotic was seized from two Texas men by federal agents in the parking lot of Walmart on Houston Road, police said.

Emergency responders said they regularly treat overdose victims at interstate exits, where addicts returning from buying the drug in Cincinnati stop to use the drug.

"It's like they can't wait, so they pull off the exit, pull into a gas station or a restaurant and just shoot up right there," Schulkers said.

Tom Garamy, a chemical dependency therapist with St. Elizabeth Hospitals, said more pain pill users are moving to heroin because changes to prescription drugs have made it more difficult for them to get high.

Heroin dealers are now catering to what addicts want, he said.

"Better quality, better purity, less expensive, and that's really why you're seeing so much more of it now," Garamy said.

Investigators said the Florence bust indicates a possible heroin pipeline from Cincinnati to the south, and they said more arrests were possible.

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Heroin bust signals growing problem in NKY