CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kanawha County police agencies continue to tackle heroin use in the community, spurred by eight overdoses and two deaths were confirmed this past weekend.
“It’s just tragic what’s happening out here with people abusing heroin,” said Terry Sayre, chair of the Law Enforcement Commission for the Public Safety Grant Committee and the Yeager Airport Deputy Director.
Since last June, the Heroin Eradication Associated Task-force (HEAT), a team of law enforcement and justice officials across Kanawha County, has been dedicated to tackling problems related to heroin.
With area pill mills being shut down, Sayre said users have turned to heroin in the past year due to high availability and its low price.
Heightening the risk: Users don’t know the purity of the drug they are buying.
“You never know if you’re getting something that’s 3 percent, 5 percent, 10 percent or 20 percent heroin,” Sayre said. “You’re buying it from a drug dealer on the street who’s out to make money and he doesn’t know what it has even been cut with.”
In hopes every community in Kanawha County will become involved, the task force is seeking information from every corner.
“We’re in the process now of getting a heroin-only tip line established, so we can push that phone number out to people to call in and help the police,” said Sayre.
HEAT is financed by $250,000 from the county’s Public Safety Grant Commission. The money has gone to smaller police departments to deal with issues in their communities and the Metro Drug Unit to handle the larger dealers, Sayre said.
The task force is composed of the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department, county prosecutor’s office, U.S. Attorney’s Office, the county’s ambulance authority and police departments in Kanawha County municipalities.