Almost daily, drug busts and drug-related arrests are making the headlines.
In Warren alone, the last two months have been extremely busy for members of the Trumbull Ashtabula Group law enforcement task force. The task force has made busts at several houses where they believe heroin was being sold, and earlier this week they raided a house and seized over a pound of cocaine.
Investigators believe the house was part of distribution network responsible for bringing cocaine into many northern Ohio communities.
"We arrested two individuals, and they were part of a network bringing drugs to Cleveland, Toledo and Akron," said an undercover drug agent.
Two were arrested at the drug raid Sunday and four other Warren residents, who local authorities believe are part of that same network, were arrested last week in Utah with more than nine pounds of cocaine. Police said the four planned to bring the drugs back here.
Cocaine, and now heroin, are being sold on the streets at an alarming rate.
"It is very frightening what we are seeing with heroin today," said Doug Wentz, of the Neil Kennedy Recovery Center. "It is much purer, more powerful, and the stigma about it is not there."
And the Trumbull County Coroner's office is seeing first-hand the deadly effects of heroin.
"It is making a comeback. Heroin is making a comeback," said Trumbull County Coroner Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk. "I don't know what the actual street value is or what the cost is or how easy it is being smuggled in to the county, but heroin is making a comeback and we are definitely seeing deaths due to heroin overdoses."
There have been nine fatal drug overdoses related to heroin so far this year.
And teenagers and young adults are becoming hooked. Some officials said heroin addiction can start because the person first becomes hooked on prescription drugs, such as OxyContin.
Germaniuk said one way powerful pain prescription drugs make their way into homes is when a person, such as a parent, gets injured. The drugs are normally stored in medicine cabinets, which put the narcotics in easy reach of teenagers.
"Mom is now on a pain patch and her other narcotics for her sprained ankle and now all of a sudden the daughter has access to quite a few narcotics. She can't even buy a pack of cigarettes but she has access to enough narcotics to be responsible for her death," said Germaniuk.
This story is the second in a three-part series. Check back here Friday for part three, where we'll look at ways to help keep kids off of drugs.
