Kalamazoo cracks down on cocaine use

By Josh Holderbaum
Western Herald

With recent arrests of heroin dealers and overdoses from users, the Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team has been busy cracking down on suppliers of the drug.

Recently, heroin has become a danger to a younger generation, especially in Portage, Capt. Joseph Taylor, KVET, said.

“In the last few years we’ve seen a change in demographics in people who use heroin,” Taylor said. “Usually users would be around 30 to 40 years old. It was not popular among teens. But for whatever reason, we’ve been seeing a rise in teenagers using heroin.”

No matter the age, heroin users use the drug for the same reason.

“Heroin users use it to numb life,” Taylor said. “The most susceptible are those with depression issues. Something has been going on in their personal lives that they want to escape. And the thing is that the down is worse than when they started. Then they want that next high even sooner. It’s a snowball effect.”
In addition to younger users, the purity of the heroin has also become a concern.

“We’re finding heroin entering the county with twice the purity it historically has been,” Taylor said. “So kids who wouldn’t stick a needle in their arms might snort it or they might smoke it, and they’ll get a more significant affect than usual and wind up hooked.”

Heroin normally enters the United States at 100 percent purity, Taylor said. Dealers then break down the heroin by diluting it before selling it.

Diluting heroin that is twice as pure as normal still leaves the drug in a much higher concentration than many users are expecting.

“One of the most dangerous things about heroin that’s twice as pure is that the body can only take so much,” Taylor said. “Users think they’re getting the same thing in the same amount, but it’s twice as pure, which could send them into O.D. (Over Dose) The body can’t take 50 or 100 percent heroin. Anyone would die from that. Ten or 15 percent, which is about normal [amount that] can be taken. Double it and it can kill you.”

Increased purity of heroin can also hook first-time users much faster, Taylor said.

With heroin appearing so close to campus, “Heroin hasn’t appeared on campus that much, not for over a year,” Deputy Chief Blaine Kalafut, WMU Department of Public Safety, said. “We had a student years ago who was an addict, and the major problem with him was that he would leave his syringes lying around. But that’s not to say someone isn’t doing it.”

One of the downsides to heroin is the price tag.

“These are $200 to $300 a day habits,” Taylor said. “Users wind up getting into stealing and prostitution. If you bust someone with a $320 bag of heroin, there’s a good chance they stole that.”

However, drugs other than heroin have appeared on campus.

“Marijuana is our biggest drug problem on campus,” Kalafut said. “Sometimes we pull over students and find that in their cars. We also find some students with aderol once in a while.”

Those drugs are common anywhere, Taylor said.

“Marijuana is everywhere, it’s really easy to find,” Taylor said. “Cocaine is also a lot easier to find than heroin. Prescription drugs are also a problem nationwide. Make sure your cabinets are locked up. It isn’t just kids that get into those; friends coming over might decide to go through medicine cabinets, too.”

Taylor ordered informational booklets on the affects of drugs from the Foundation for a Drug-Free World, based in Los Angeles, and hopes to have them available at his speaking engagements.

“These are really great little books,” Taylor said. “They have the affects of heroin, statistics about it, why people do heroin, everything. And they make ones on different drugs, too, like marijuana and cocaine. I ordered a thousand, and I’m hoping to have them pretty soon.”

But many more factors are needed to stem drug problems, Taylor said.

“There really has to be a collaborative effort,” Taylor said. “It has to come from parenting, schools, education and awareness, enforcement, and treatment for those who do get hooked.”

Often, realizing the affects of the drugs is the first step to break an addiction.

“It goes back to the old saying, ‘Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future,’” Taylor said.
Taylor offered this advice, “pick your friends wisely.”

For more information on the Foundation for a Drug-Free World, visit drugfreeworld.com.

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Sep 30 2008. Filed under Local, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
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