Heroin, meth seizures up in 2014, JPD says

heroin
Juneau police seized 4.7 kilograms of heroin in 2014. This picture shows one kilo seized in September. (Photo courtesy Juneau Police Department)

The Juneau Police Department seized more heroin and methamphetamine last year than in 2013, but seizures of illegally trafficked prescription drugs were down.

JPD, working with state and federal law enforcement, seized 4.7 kilograms of heroin and more than 3.6 kilos of meth last year, according to the department’s annual drug statistics report released Friday. That’s seven times as much heroin and nearly five times as much meth as the previous year.

Lt. Kris Sell says the amount of hard drugs on the street probably didn’t change. But officers were able to take bigger chunks of the supply thanks to some high profile busts.

“If you looked at just the numbers, you would think, ‘Oh my goodness, heroin has just exploded in Juneau in 2014,'” Sell says. “And that’s not what we’re seeing on the streets, but we are seeing that we’ve interdicted a lot more heroin.”

methamphetamine, meth
The street value of all the methamphetamine seized in Juneau last year was $635,000. (Photo courtesy Juneau Police Department)

Sell says police made more meth busts early in 2014, but numbers tapered off toward the end of the year.

She says heroin is cheap right now. A tenth of a gram sells for about $100.

Prescription drugs are more expensive, leading to fewer illegal users.

Sell says the department saw a 75 percent decrease in seizures of Oxycontin, Oxycodone, Hydrocodone and Vicodin.

“It’s so expensive now,” she says. “The price of those has gone up with supply and demand. So people have just gone to heroin.”

The street value of all illegal drugs seized in Juneau last year was more than $5.7 million – up from nearly $2 million in 2013. Police also seized more than $109,000 in cash during drug investigations.

All told, JPD’s drug unit handled 105 cases, charged 37 people with 48 crimes, and made 38 controlled buys in 2014.

But Sell says the drug stats only show part of the picture.

“Thefts and check forgeries and shoplifting, so many of those crimes are tied to drugs,” she says.

Painting a better picture of Juneau’s drug problem is why this year’s report includes information on overdoses for the first time. Sell says medical privacy laws can make getting those numbers difficult. But as near as the department can tell, there were 19 overdoses last year, including four from heroin and four from meth.

She says members of the public requested that information be included in the report.

“There’s a lot of rumor about overdoses and how many people are overdosing on what, and that seemed to be a yardstick that the Juneau public wanted,” Sell says.

Walt Sisikin with the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence and the Juneau Alcohol Safety Action Program says treatment providers see a lot of the same people struggling with addiction over and over again. He says treatment works best when people follow up an inpatient or residential program with outpatient therapies.

“In other words, you go ahead and keep seeing a counselor, you go ahead and work your program in the sense of going to AA meetings or NA meetings, you find yourself a sponsor,” he says.

This will be the last year marijuana is included in the JPD drug report. Voters legalized recreational pot in November and the new law takes effect later this month.

But Sell expects JPD to be just as busy dealing with marijuana related issues, including driving under the influence and underage use.

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