Law enforcement often feels overwhelmed by Mon Valley's heroin epidemic

(Part one of a six-part series on the effects of heroin on the Mid-Mon Valley.)

The United States has waged a war on illegal drugs since 1971, when President Richard Nixon declared them “public enemy No 1.”

Throughout the decades, the war has targeted marijuana, acid and cocaine, just three illicit substances on a long list.

Heroin has long been on that list, and Donora police Superintendent Jim Brice offered a grave prediction about the current war on that narcotic, which has become wildly popular in recent years.

“I don't think we're going to win this war,” Brice said.

One addict said that when he gets a supply of heroin, he tests a bag and, if it's weak, he takes some more, Brice recalled.

“One guy, I asked him, ‘How can you keep putting that needle in your arm when you know you might die?' and he said, ‘It's worth it,'” Brice said. “One day, we're going to be picking him up and putting him in a body bag.”

Brice said it's impossible to end that type of rationalization.

“How do you stop something like that? You're not going to. Heroin has really taken over,” he said.

Brice said the heroin problem is the worst he's seen. And it's everywhere.

“Every community has the exact same problem,” Brice said. “They're overdosing here; they're overdosing in Charleroi, Monongahela and Monessen.”

Brice said empty stamp bags commonly used to package heroin are routinely found when cars are searched during traffic stops.

“It's throughout the country,” Brice said. “It's not just the Mon Valley – it's everywhere. Even when I talk to police from other areas – even outside the state – they tell me we all have the same problem.”

The heroin epidemic

Monongahela police Officer Bill Fusco calls heroin “an epidemic.”

“When I started five years ago, you did not see any heroin, just pills,” Fusco said. “Within two years, it was all heroin.”

Fusco said he deals with something related to heroin every shift. Aside from drug arrests, he handles burglaries and thefts, “crimes that go hand in hand with the drug.”

“They need the drug every day, and they don't have a job,” Fusco said. “So they need money. When you catch people in thefts, burglaries, it's all related to heroin.”

Fusco said he has encountered heroin addicts from ages 16 to 62.

Asked why heroin has become an epidemic, Monongahela police Chief Brian Tempest said, “If you could answer why it has grown, you could stop it.”

City police have arrested people from such affluent municipalities as Upper St. Clair and Peters Township, he said, adding heroin affects the young and old, rich and poor.

“The drug has no prejudice,” Fusco said. “It affects all ages, race, persons who had good jobs.”

There is a common starting point for most heroin addicts, Fusco said.

“A lot of people say ‘I blew out my ankle' or ‘had a bad back,' and after they ran out of pain pills, they found heroin was a lot cheaper,'” Fusco said. “A lot of people hide it until we get the (overdose) call.”

Fusco suggested that the solution begins with the legal system.

“It has to start with punishing people who sell drugs,” Fusco said. “Fifty stamp bags are not for personal use. We're not sending the message clear.”

Fusco said diversion programs are good, but claimed they help just one in 20 people.

“They want help, but they're hooked. That's why people rob their own children and parents,” Fusco said of addicts. “Kids are dying and still others are putting that needle in their arm.”

Tempest said different sentencing guidelines are in place for nonviolent criminals who use heroin.

“They say the system would be inundated, and there would not be enough room if we put nonviolent drug dealers in jail,” Tempest said of lawmakers who establish such sentencing guidelines.

Police resources

Rostraver police Lt. John Christner said most in law enforcement saw the tidal wave of heroin coming five years ago. He said heroin use has doubled in that time.

Christner said the majority of criminal activity is related to drug use. And heroin is the top drug of choice.

“They're doing whatever to get that next fix, whether it's retail theft or breaking into homes and stealing jewelry and taking it to pawn shops,” Christner said. “It's sapping our resources.”

The problem is a perfect-though-distorted principle of economics – the supply is meeting the demand. Heroin is a lot cheaper than pain pills, and it meets the same needs for junkies.

“The addicts will tell you the high's very similar; it's all opiate-based,” Christner said.

Christner said the approach must involve attacking the supply system, “but when you get the one drug dealer there's another right behind.”

The veteran officer said educating young people is paramount.

“Once they get started, I can count on one hand the number that get off it,” Christner said of heroin users and addicts. “It's that difficult to battle.”

Christner said that despite efforts to stamp out heroin trafficking, the outlook is not good.

“As a society, we have to come up with a way to battle this because criminal activities are rampant because of heroin.”

Charleroi Regional police Chief Eric Porter agrees that heroin use has increased dramatically.

“When I started this job 17 years ago, you never saw heroin or very rarely,” Porter said. “Now you see it every day. Every department in the Valley is making heroin arrests every day.”

Still, Porter said police must continue the battle.

“Fortunately, I have a good group of young officers,” Porter said. “We have to keep making arrests and kicking in doors and get a lot of support from other local departments and the state.

“We have to fight it together.”

Southwest Regional Police Chief John Hartman said he has seen more heroin activity in the past two or three years than ever before.

Hartman said the prescription drug Narcan is being supplied to police. It is marketed under the name naloxone and is designed to reverse the effect of opioids such as heroin, especially in overdose cases.

“I support that, and I think that will give you an indication of how serious the problem is when we are equipping police with a device like this to stem the problem,” Hartman said. “We definitely have a problem, and I don't see it going away.”

When Monessen police Chief John Manderino entered law enforcement in 1989, he encountered just a handful of heroin addicts who entered the drug culture in the 1960s or 1970s.

“Over time, they would die, and you didn't have new people taking their place,” Manderino said.

“Five years ago, you had to go to Clairton to get heroin, and now every community has more heroin than they know what to do with.”

Manderino said most people don't realize how much money can be made on heroin.

“The heroin epidemic makes the crack boom of late '80s and early '90s look like nothing,” Manderino said. “A place like Monessen has hundreds of thousands of dollars exchanged over heroin every day.”

Crack is a crystallized form of cocaine.

The chief said larger dealers are taking over Valley municipalities.

“People need to wake up. It's not a big, inner-city drug anymore,” Manderino said.

How to battle it?

“If had the answer to that question, I'd write a book and go on ‘Oprah,'” Manderino said.

Addicts might want to quit, but don't for the wrong reasons, such as they can't afford to quit their jobs and go to rehabilitation or they do not have medical insurance, Manderino said. He suggested that more money for rehabilitation programs would be a good start.

“Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, ‘Hey, I want to be a heroin addict,'” Manderino said. “It's a progression over time. Kids don't know how easy it is to become addicted.

“At first, it's a party drug – it makes them feel good. Then addicts take it to stop from being sick.”

Street sickness – brought on by the absence of heroin – is like the worst possible flu, multiplied by 100, Manderino said.

Chris Buckley is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at cbuckley@tribweb.com or 724-684-2642.