Dec. 28--The figures tell a story that's only getting worse: As of Monday, 16 people have died from a heroin overdose this year, double the number in 2009. Overdoses caused by the drug also have increased -- from 61 in 2009 to 86 this year.
But what's even more alarming, officials say, is the increase in "drugged driving" cases in which heroin users shoot up immediately after getting the drug and then drive. That leads to the same kind of impaired driving as drinking alcohol.
"In some cases they still have the needle in their arm" when an officer pulls drivers over, said Sgt. Gordy Disch with the Dane County Narcotics and Gang Task Force.
Police didn't have data on the number of operating while intoxicated arrests that are the result of heroin. But "it's definitely increasing" as the drug continues to be cheap and available, Disch said.
Case in point: On Dec. 21, a 21-year-old DeForest man crashed his car on Alvarez Avenue near Milwaukee Street after injecting heroin. The man, whose name has not been released, was taken to the hospital and later to the Dane County Jail.
His was one of three heroin overdoses in Dane County that day -- there also was one in Madison and one in Waunakee.
Echo of crack epidemic
Disch said he expects the heroin-related deaths and overdoses to continue going up.
"I'm afraid we're on pace for the next couple of years until people finally wake up, or until the main sources of heroin outside of the United States dry up," he said.
Another indication of the area's growing heroin problem is the number of times this year emergency responders administered the drug Narcan, often given to reverse the effects of heroin.
As of mid-December, emergency responders gave Narcan to 78 patients between the ages of 20 to 29 -- the most common age group to receive the drug -- up from 45 in 2009.
Madison Police Chief Noble Wray said he continues to be alarmed about the city's growing heroin problem, and compares it to problems the city had with crack cocaine in the late 1980s.
Now as then, the department is seeing the number of robberies and burglaries rise as heroin addicts steal for money to support their habit.
Many heroin users trace their addiction to prescription pain killers, specifically oxycodone, OxyContin and Percocet.
Drop boxes, hotel crackdowns
In an effort to get those drugs off the streets and out of medicine cabinets, the Madison Police Department installed a medicine drop box in the lobby of the East District station, 809 S. Thompson Drive, in November. Now residents can pitch unwanted drugs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays as part of a four-month pilot program. Details on the amount collected so far was not available Tuesday.
"It has been tremendously successful," Wray said. "The response has been unbelievable."
The Middleton Police Department has had a similar medicine drop box at its location, 7341 Donna Drive, Middleton, since mid-October.
As of last week, the department had filled 16 5-gallon bags with drugs from the drop box, said Middleton Police Capt. Chuck Foulke.
City officials also hope to fight the heroin problem by cracking down on hotels that cater to transients and are known as popular sites for drug sales.
In September, the Highlander Motor Inn, 4353 W. Beltline, was boarded up after the city sought the closure of the "high-drug, high-crime property" under the state's public nuisance statute.
"That has been one of the more successful strategies, but by no means do we think that we have this thing locked," Wray said.
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