Pubdate: Sun, 29 Jul 2012 Source: Tallmadge Express (OH) Copyright: 2012 Record Publishing Co, LLC Contact: http://www.tallmadgeexpress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5011 Author: Alison Adams COUNTY HIT WITH DRUG 'EPIDEMIC' Summit County is experiencing an epidemic -- one that the majority of the county is unaware of: a rise in meth and heroin abuse. It's a well-kept secret to those who don't experience it first-hand. "If you saw what I saw on some days, you would understand why it's an epidemic," said Sarah Hulburt, a Summit County defense attorney. But most people are "not aware of [the drug problem in Summit County] at all," she said. "I wasn't aware of it, it was completely shocking to me. The only awareness of it they might have is if a friend or if they have a child themselves that has been addicted to it." Meth and heroin are quickly becoming the most common drugs in the area, says Bill Holland, spokesperson for the Summit County Sheriff's Department. "There's times when we see a lot more of one drug than another," he adds. "And right now meth and heroin are what we're seeing a lot of." The large amount of drug users in Summit County has made it essential for law enforcement to have an increased focus on "the war on drugs," Holland said. "It's a pretty high priority for a couple reasons. Number one, heroin, because it's become so prevalent in our area and a lot of people are overdosing -- multiple people every week. That's just not something this area's used to and we haven't seen it slow down," Holland says. "Meth is also a priority because not only does it harm the users, but it harms other people, too." Portable meth labs a growing problem Meth is becoming dangerous to a greater amount of people because of new methods that make labs portable. The "one-pot method" makes it possible to create meth in an object as small as a bottle of pop. "You can throw it in your backpack and you can walk around and be creating meth. You can have it in the trunk of your car and drive around with a meth lab. When you're done, they just toss it out the window, toss it into a Dumpster. You don't have all that waste at your house," Holland says. Holland says Summit County makes up one fourth of all the known meth labs in the state, but that doesn't mean there are more meth labs in the area than in others. The county is just more proactive and aggressive with finding meth labs, he says. "Meth has really come on the scene because number one, you can make it yourself and you can get the components to make it at the store. You don't have to go in a dark alley and meet with the drug dealer or have a drug connection, you can get some of the components at Target, you can find the recipe on the Internet," Holland says. "And number two, it's very, very addictive." Prescription pill abuse can lead to heroin use Sgt. Michael Walsh, leader of the Summit County Sheriff's Office Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program, says Summit County has a huge heroin problem coming back and that addiction rates have gone up. He says a lot of people who have someone on heroin in their family don't say anything until it's too late. "A lady at Summit Mall came up to me and she's like, 'I don't know what to do, I just found out my son OD'd last night -- almost died on heroin.' He's 17 years old, junior in high school. And his friend had previously OD'd the week before," Walsh says. "Totally oblivious, didn't know anything about the drugs at all." Hulburt, who is also the Hudson High School Mock Trial Team coach, says she deals with more heroin cases than she can count. "Kids are stealing from their middle class parents, from good communities, and their parents are literally locking everything in the safe," Hulburt says. "Them saying, 'We can't have this person living with us, yet this is my child. I don't want them on the streets. What do we do? Here, it's in your hands.' I've had many of those." She says prescription pills have become popular among high school students, and the use of over-the-counter medications can lead to more serious drug habits. "Pain management treatment is basically, for me, a catch-all formula for getting addicted. Physiologically they're addicted pretty much instantly. In their mind, the idea of pain and the drugs sort of get intertwined," Hulburt says. "Because as an addict, they often use the term 'pain' to get the prescription, when really, they don't know the difference between pain and being on the high because their responses become different on the drug." Hulburt says the problem is common among younger people because their brains just respond to pleasure. "It's easier for a younger person to get addicted because they have no way to say yes or no. Their brain is going to tell them that if this is good, let's do it," she says. Break-ins on the rise to fund drug habits Sgt. Walsh said some of the break-ins officers investigate involve the theft of prescription drugs, not valuables like TVs and jewelry. Kids are also stealing prescriptions from their family members. "Kids will steal two or three from mom. Mom never pays attention to what she has in her pill bottle," Walsh says. "Then they'll go to the party on Friday night, have a 'Pharm Party' in which they come in and drop their pills in a bowl. And as the night goes on, the bowl gets passed, they take two of whatever and flush it down with a drink of beer and see where the night takes them." Crimes like theft are how most heroin addicts pick up felony charges. Stores that carry high-ticket items are popular because they can get a decent amount of money for things like TVs and ink cartridges. But stealing from stores comes after a heroin addict has wiped their family clean. Family members are often the first people an addict steals from, and according to Hulburt, they will take anything and everything. "I even had a kid steal a snow shovel. Snow shovel. So the parents will have safes because their children will literally steal the silverware, anything they can get their hands on," Hulburt says. Hulburt says she once dealt with a case in which the mother locked everything in her car because she knew her son didn't have a set of keys to it. She would sleep every night holding her keys to her chest. Stopping the addiction before it begins Sgt. Walsh believes education is the key to preventing children from getting addicted, and one way to educate children is through the D.A.R.E. program. Walsh and four other officers travel to different school systems throughout the area and cover topics like drug and alcohol abuse, bullying and Internet safety, depending on what schools ask for. Some children that Walsh interacts with aren't even aware that people shouldn't be doing drugs. He said that he hopes the children he teaches will go home to their parents and fill them in on what they've learned to start positive conversations, but he says there are some parents that just don't care. "I had one kid come tell me, 'I never knew these drugs were bad.' Both his parents were addicts. Ended up, [they] were both arrested for a meth house. We arrested mom, dad and uncle. Everyone in his family that was an adult was arrested," Walsh says. "So his whole life, they've been involved in drugs. No one's ever told him it was wrong. And I've run across that more than once." The goal of the D.A.R.E. program is to educate children to make good decisions, he says. "Some people listen, some people don't. But at least they can't come back and say, 'No one ever told me,'" Walsh says. "And that's our goal: we educated you, we gave you a chance and we gave you the tools to say no. And hopefully, we kept more kids alive." - --- MAP posted-by: Matt