RICHMOND, Ind. — While opioids continue taking a deadly toll in Wayne County, another threat has taken hold in the area, as well.

Methamphetamine use has been climbing for more than a year, and, according to Lt. Scott Crull, supervisor of the Wayne County Drug Task Force, methamphetamine now has become prevalent. He said the area once saw crack cocaine as the primary drug, then transitioned to heroin for several years. Now, methamphetamine is popular.

"The meth is really starting to come out," said Crull, who was recently named Richmond Police Department's Supervisor of the Year because of his work with the task force and SWAT team. "We’re purchasing a lot more meth and investigating a lot more meth cases now than ever before.”

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Why meth use is growing

Crull said task force officers find two reasons methamphetamine use has grown.

“We’ve heard both things: People are afraid of (heroin) because they’re dying, and we’ve heard that meth is just readily available like heroin has been," he said. "The market’s been flooded."

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Heroin and synthetic opiates fentanyl and carfentanil have driven drug-related deaths in Wayne County for at least three years. Since the beginning of 2016, drugs have contributed to more than 200 deaths in the county.

Coroner Ron Stevens said his office handled 71 confirmed drug-related deaths during 2018, and he's waiting for final reports on nine more deaths that he expects will be confirmed as drug-related. If so, that total of 80, as gruesome as it is, represents a 17-percent decrease from 2017, when Stevens recorded 96 drug-related deaths in the county.

LOCAL DRUG COVERAGE:

►SWAT raid target formally charged with dealing meth

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"I think what we're seeing is more use of meth and increased use of Narcan," Stevens said to explain the slight drop. "Meth isn't as deadly, and it's more prevalent and readily available."

Narcan is an opioid overdose antidote that contains the opioid antagonist naloxone, which binds to opioid receptors and blocks the opioids' effects. Because of the mounting deaths resulting from the opioid crisis, Narcan is now available over the counter, so even opioid users have life-saving access. In addition, law enforcement officers have begun carrying Narcan, as much for their own safety as for the safety of others. RPD and the Wayne County Sheriff's Office began supplying officers with Narcan during 2017.

Fentanyl's role in 2018 drug deaths

Stevens said nearly all of those people recorded as drug-related deaths during 2018 showed fentanyl in their systems. He noted almost all of them also tested positive for marijuana.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that's far more potent than heroin itself. It often is cut into other substances, such as heroin or cocaine, to increase the effect. However, fentanyl's potency increases the possibility of overdose.

Carfentanil is even more powerful. It is a synthetic opioid used as an elephant tranquilizer, and an amount equal to a grain of salt can kill a person.

The possible dire consequences to officers of accidental contact with such serious substances helped convince law enforcement that carrying Narcan was essential.

Combining the likely 176 deaths from 2018 and 2019 with the 56 from 2016 results in 232 drug-related deaths during the three-year period. Those numbers are staggering compared with the 16 drug-related deaths recorded as recently as 2012, with the average of 77 yearly deaths nearly five times as many as recorded in 2012.

Dealing with heroin and meth use

Heroin and the synthetic opioids change a user's brain chemistry and create a physical dependence. When high, a user tends to become calm and laid back, Crull said. An overdose dangerously reduces respiration. On the other hand, methamphetamine is an upper that jolts a user and leads to unpredictability, Crull said. It's less likely to lead to a deadly overdose, but it does lead to psychological addiction, rather than physical addiction.

“The difficult thing in dealing with people on heroin is sometimes it’s hard to tell that they’re (high) on heroin," Crull said. "Meth addicts, it’s not hard to tell. You can tell immediately that they’re high on methamphetamine. A lot harder for them to hide it (because) they can’t control their actions."

LOCAL DRUG COVERAGE:

►18 grams of meth found in wrong-way vehicle

►Formal charges accuse man of dealing meth, heroin

►3 grams of meth found in traffic stop result in dealing charge

That can make law enforcement's job difficult. Methamphetamine users can react violently toward officers.

"We’ve been trained on how to deal with people that are using meth and understand how to deal with them," Crull said. "They can be a lot more volatile and more the risk of the unknown of what they’re going to do, that fight-or-flight mode that they go into real quick.”

Another danger shared by heroin and methamphetamine involves syringes and hypodermic needles. While methamphetamine can be smoked, it also is injected, creating problems with needles that might be infected with blood-borne diseases, such as HIV or hepatitis C. Accidental pricks from discarded needles remain a concern.

"It’s not preferable by any means, because you still have the aspect of needles laying around," Crull said. "They’re still using needles to inject it. They smoke it; they inject it. There’s still that hypodermic needle problem that we have.”

No longer homemade: How meth has changed

The methamphetamine itself also differs now. Previously, methamphetamine cookers would combine ingredients to make the drug in volatile local labs. It would even be made in a 2-liter bottle. Now, however, the methamphetamine filters into the area from foreign cartels, just the way heroin and opioids arrive.

"It’s not being made around here like it used to be," Crull said. "It’s actually coming in from the Mexican cartel, and a lot better quality than what was getting made in the backyard of people’s homes. And it’s easy to get now."

And that's bad news.

The drug crisis evolves — crack cocaine to heroin to methamphetamine — and it might transition to something new, but Crull said it shows no signs of abating. At least not yet, when suppliers find ample demand.

“There’s still the market for it, and as long as we have that high demand of the market, it’s going to be available,” Crull said.

LOCAL DRUG COVERAGE:

►Woman charged after meth, heroin, marijuana found within toddlers' reach

►Woman's 1st conviction results in 5-year prison sentence

►Tips lead to arrests of 2 suspected meth dealers

►Tail light out leads to methamphetamine arrests

►Charges: Driver under influence of meth when he fled police, crashed into tree

►Traffic stop results in drug-dealing charges against 2 men

►Man facing murder charge sentenced for possessing meth