Salem police seeing less heroin — but more dangerous drugs

SALEM, Ohio (WKBN) – Over the last several years, Salem police had been getting a lot of heroin off the streets. Now they’re seeing less of the drug, which may sound like good news — but it’s not because what they are seeing is much more dangerous.

Salem police sent seized drugs to the lab to test for heroin. The results showed they were actually something worse — fentanyl and carfentanil.

“There’s a lot of dangerous stuff out there and it’s killing people,” said Salem Police Chief J.T. Panezott.

He said it all started with an increase in overdoses. That’s when lab results started to show the drugs were not heroin, but fentanyl and carfentanil.

“A drug dealer — it has to do with the money and how much money we can make on it. The fentanyl is much cheaper than the heroin. It has the same effects and it’s at least 40 times stronger than the heroin. The carfentanil is actually 100 times stronger than the fentanyl,” said Brian McLaughlin, a detective with the Columbiana County Drug Task Force.

McLaughlin said fentanyl can be mixed with a larger quantity of a non-drug substance to make it go further, ultimately making the dealers more money.

That’s not the only problem. The lab results of a recent seizure of oxycodone pills also sparked concern.

“Instead of being oxycodone, they were Tramadol with fentanyl mix, cocaine with fentanyl, cocaine with Tramadol, heroin with fentanyl — all in tablets,” Panezott said.

He said officers keep safety kits in their cruisers and are now treating every drug like it contains fentanyl, just in case.

A recent surge of methamphetamine is also hitting the county.

“This crystal that’s coming from Mexico, we’re getting it anywhere from $60 to $80 a gram, so it’s much cheaper. It’s much purer because of the process that it’s put through,” McLaughlin said.

They said Mexico does not have restrictions on any of the chemicals needed to produce methamphetamine.

Chief Panezott said the spike in meth is troubling.

“These people don’t sleep for days. They are violent.”

McLaughlin said overdose deaths actually dropped some last year. He credits the task force and police for getting ahead of the opioid epidemic, as well as greater access to naloxone to reverse the effects of an overdose.