Heroin addiction leading to spike in cocaine use

Heroin addiction is causing an uptick in cocaine availability just as a recent court decision hinders prosecution.

The Ohio Substance Abuse Monitoring’s recently released drug trend report indicates the heroin epidemic is driving an increase in other drugs pretty much statewide. Other drugs, especially cocaine, are sometimes being used in conjunction with heroin or as a fallback when a user can’t get heroin, according to the report.

At least one law enforcement official in the Cincinnati region reported crack cocaine is coming on like it did in the early 1990s, and the report surmises it’s “almost as available as heroin in most areas.” However, the penalties for cocaine were essentially decimated in late December by an Ohio Supreme Court opinion that leaves prosecutors with little choice but to charge all cocaine charges as fifth-degree felonies, regardless of the amount, until state legislators tweak the law.

“Many of the people we arrest for heroin have more cocaine on them than heroin,” said Chillicothe Police Chief Keith Washburn.

About 21 percent of all 3,238 drug overdose deaths in Ohio in 2015 involved cocaine and more than half of those also involved heroin, according to Ohio Department of Health data on all drug overdose deaths obtained by the USA TODAY NETWORK-Ohio.

In Licking County, cocaine was involved in one 2015 drug overdose death, which also involved heroin.

“We have seen a rise in cocaine both powdered and crack cocaine in the last six months,” said Lt. Paul Cortright, with the Central Ohio Drug Enforcement Task Force. “It is partly a natural cycle, but the dealers are not going to sell unless there’s an outlet for it.”

He said the increase might have to do with the fact tar heroin isn’t as popular as some of the synthetics now. Opiates and heroin have a “foothold” in Licking County, but the area has a larger user base of methamphetamine.

“We still see three times more methamphetamine than heroin and cocaine in Licking County.”

Data on cases pulled by OSAM from the National Forensic Laboratory Information System indicate between January and June 2016, cocaine cases were up 9.5 percent statewide while heroin cases were down slightly 2 percent from the previous six months, July to December 2015. The report indicates an increase in both powder cocaine and crack cocaine, although one interviewee said heroin is even easier to obtain than aspirin because it can be delivered.

“I think people are just getting sick of the possibility of overdosing ... the fear of overdosing and dying has turned them in a different direction (away from opiates and towards cocaine),” the report quoted a Cincinnati region law enforcement professional.

The drug trend report is done every six months through interviews with several hundred people including law enforcement, treatment providers, and, for the current report, 333 active and recovering drug users from each of the eight state regions.

Due to the seeming saturation of heroin —which the report notes continues to increase in Cincinnati, Dayton, and Toledo regions —competition is high and is suspected as the reason the quality is being enhanced with more powerful opiates, like fentanyl and carfentanil. A participant in the Athens region said that’s why there are so many overdoses.

“You might get this (batch of heroin) and you need this much of it. Then the next day, or even later on that same day, half of what you did before could kill you,” the report reads.

The trend with cocaine is the opposite - it’s being cut with essentially any white-ish powder substance like baby formula and baking powder, to extend the amount on hand to sell. The filler in it is the exact issue at hand in the Ohio Supreme Court opinion.

In the midst of the holidays, the Ohio Supreme Court issued an opinion in a case that questioned whether the law allows filler substances cut into cocaine to be considered as part of the weight used to determine the degree of a possession offense. In a four-to-three decision, the court ruled that, as currently written, the law requires the charge to be based on the amount of pure cocaine, meaning no filler.

Law enforcement and prosecutors across the state rely on free testing by state crime labs, none of which are certified to do purity tests on cocaine. While there may be independent labs that could test purity, Ross County Prosecutor Matt Schmidt told the Chillicothe Gazette in early January the problem then becomes cost. Not only would there be a cost to do the test, but once cases went to trial, the prosecutor's office would have to pay the travel and other expenses to get an expert from the lab to testify.

Rep. Bob Cupp, R-Lima, is finalizing legislation to tweak the law.

“I’m bird-dogging this issue because it does punch a serious hole in our prosecution of possession and trafficking of cocaine,” Cupp said. “It’s really important to close that hole just as soon as possible.”

Cupp plans to introduce his bill soon and anticipates it will move quickly through both the House and Senate. Emergency language will also be added so if it passes, as is expected, it would go into effect immediately upon Gov. John Kasich’s signature. Cupp is hopeful the entire process can take place by the end of February, which would be unusually fast for most legislation.

Wallace said they can’t put a hold on enforcement and filing charges waiting until the legislature makes a change.

“They say they’re going to fix the cocaine law, but how long is that going to take?” Wallace said.

Wallace pointed to the stalled Senate bill which aimed to address penalties for fentanyl. Ohio law currently is written to address doses of prescribed fentanyl, not the illegally made fentanyl being sold throughout Ohio and added to heroin.

Sen. Frank LaRose, R-Hudson, introduced a bill to address it in October 2015, and while it was passed by the Senate during lame duck session in December, it didn’t make its way through the House before the end of session.

“We’re still doing everything we can to find anything and everything we can,” Wallace said. “It’s discouraging, but we took the oath a long time ago to uphold the law whether we agree with it or not.”

Some Cincinnati law enforcement told OSAM a previous law change regarding crack cocaine also likely plays a part. In response to the increased use of the drug in late 1980s and early 1990s and the war on drugs, crack cocaine penalties were boosted. However, Ohio’s law changed in 2011 to make the penalties the same regardless if the cocaine is powder or cooked into crack cocaine.

Lab cases of heroin and cocaine

Heroin Cocaine Region July-December 2015 January-June 2016 July-December 2015 January-June 2016 Columbus 1,323 1,173 797 735 Cincinnati 3,036 3,371 1,544 1,893 Athens 445 421 246 253 Toledo 840 897 406 506 Cleveland 2,491 2,153 1,864 2,139 Dayton 1,766 1,738 1,365 1,349 Youngstown 786 750 520 494 Akron-Canton 453 430 356 404 Total 11,140 10,933 7,098 7,773

Source: OSAM Drug Trend Report for June 2016 query of National Forensic Laboratory Information System