Harford Sheriff Gives Heroin Overdose Data, Asks for Help

As the Harford County Sheriff’s Office steps up efforts to address heroin in the community, officials provided an update on where things stand and what the next move is.

Since the beginning of the year, there have been seven fatal overdoses from heroin in Harford County, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office reported on Tuesday, April 7.

There have also been 34 nonfatal overdoses; of those, deputies used Narcan, which reverses the effects of heroin, 17 times.

The overdoses have occurred in various corners of the county—Aberdeen, Abingdon, Bel Air, Belcamp, Edgewood, Fallston, Havre de Grace, Jarrettsville, Joppa, Riverside and Street—according to Kyle Andersen, spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff’s Office.

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• Truck Driver Found with 5 Bricks of Heroin Near Havre de Grace
• Havre de Grace Woman Charged with Possession in Cecil County

Officials said a new protocol has been in place for Harford deputies, state troopers and municipal police since Jan. 1 at the request of Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler to use each overdose as part of the work toward prevention.

Now, a narcotics investigator responds to every overdose call to gather intelligence about how drugs are getting into Harford County, who is selling them and where users are purchasing them.

The program had a dramatic start when one week after its implementation, information obtained from a nonfatal overdose in Bel Air on Jan. 7 led police to arrest two individuals a week later during a suspected drug deal in Edgewood, the sheriff’s office reported.

The pair who allegedly sold the Jan. 7 overdose victim heroin and who were witnessed conducting a suspected drug transaction in Edgewood were two Jarrettsville residents who had appeared on National Geographic’s Drugs Inc. in a segment about heroin use in Baltimore City and Harford County, the report said.

The two were slated to begin serving sentences at the Harford County Detention Center the following week related to previous distribution charges, the sheriff’s office reported. Both have since been indicted on new distribution charges and are being held without bail.

“It was clear to me, at each overdose scene, there was valuable intelligence that was being missed,” Gahler said of bringing narcotics investigators in on overdose calls. “This is just the first step to eradicating heroin from our communities.”

On Tuesday, Gahler rolled out another tool to combat the heroin epidemic—a new, in-development Harford County work group to discuss policies and protocols.

HOPE (Heroin Overdose Prevention Effort) for Harford will consist of 12 members from all segments of the community, according to the sheriff’s office, which is seeking applicants.

Six people will be appointed by Gahler and six will be chosen by applying. All applications are due by April 17, and the group will hold its first meeting April 22. For more information, contact Erik Robey of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office at 443-567-7100 or Robeye@harfordsheriff.org.

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