Md. Drug Enforcement Officials Talk Fighting Heroin Abuse
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The growing heroin epidemic leads several of Maryland's key police leaders on a fact-finding mission to Colombia, South America.
Derek Valcourt explains they're bringing the lessons they learned back to their communities.
That's the key, considering drug enforcement officials say 80 percent of the heroin in our area comes from South America.
Some have called Baltimore the heroin capital of America. Fighting back against the growing epidemic led the city's top cop to join several other police leaders and DEA agents on a fact-finding mission to Bogota, Colombia.
That's where they helicoptered in to remote poppy fields and got a firsthand account of heroin production--from plant to poison.
Back in the United States, Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts and other police leaders say the trip opened their eyes to the scope of the heroin problem and even provided some trafficking intelligence.
"One of the things I was looking for is direct supply coming in to the city and what I was picking up was some supply chains coming out of Chicago that we weren't aware about," Commissioner Batts said.
In Anne Arundel County last year alone, there were a total of 35 deadly heroin overdoses. With a month and a half to go in this year, they've already passed that number with 46 deaths and 341 nonfatal overdoses.
That's why outgoing Chief Kevin Davis with Anne Arundel County Police took the trip. He and others learned the importance of having their crime labs analyze heroin their officers seize.
"The DEA can tie that drug, that narcotic, that heroin, that cocaine to the farm where it's produced in southern Colombia," said Chief Davis.
For now, DEA agents say the heroin problem continues to worsen despite aggressive enforcement.
"We're seeing purity levels at an all time high and prices at an all time low," said Gary Tuggle, DEA.
The law enforcement leaders who went on the trip say they were impressed with Colombia's drug education efforts modeled on the D.A.R.E. program and say they'll push for more education efforts in their respective communities.
DEA officials say much of the blame for the rise in opiate addiction in the U.S. is due to the abuse of prescription pain killers. Many addicts turn to heroin when they can do longer get their hands on prescription drugs.
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