Heroin Deaths More than Triple in 2014

The Concord Police Department has pulled together some figures from 2014 that show what officials are calling shocking new statistics specifically as it relates to the seemingly impenetrable heroin problem in the capital city.

According to the latest data, heroin overdose deaths more than tripled last year from an all-time high of four in 2013 to 13 known deaths last year. The individuals that died of overdoses ranged in ages from 26- to 56-years-old.

Lt. Timothy O’Malley, the commander of the criminal investigations unit for the Concord Police Department, who put the data together for Patch last year and again this year, called the figures “staggering” and a community and public health problem.

“It’s a huge concern for the PD and should be a huge concern for the community,” he said. “Those numbers are pretty significant.”

O’Malley said that they could be even higher due to other factors including alleged perpetrators knowing enough to quickly cleanup needles and drugs before EMTs arrive to an overdose scene. He said sudden death calls are always investigated to ensure that there aren’t other circumstances like foul play or drug overdoses. O’Malley said the police department worked very well together with the fire department and its dispatchers immediately call police for any unconscious person that looks suspicious. The department, O’Malley added, was also categorizing and re-categorizing calls based on overdoses and the outcomes of the visits, in order to get the most complete information possible for analysis.

While he didn’t have the exact overdose data on hand, so far in 2015, there have been no deaths, O’Malley said.

“That’s a good thing,” he said, “but the downside is that that may just be the presence of Narcan.”

Narcan, or naloxone hydrochloride, is a opiate antagonist used to reverse the effect of drugs and medicines, and is often the first thing responders turn to in order to quickly revive individuals that are overdosing. That may be a positive when it comes to death and dying, but it doesn’t mean the use of heroin or overdosing is subsiding in the first three months of this year, he noted.

When compared to previous years, O’Malley acknowledged that the department was doing “a much better job of tracking the overdoses” due to the surge of problems during the last two years. However, he doesn’t believe that this means that the numbers in 2012 or before were not reported properly. The city had two confirmed heroin overdose deaths in 2012, according to police.

Heroin arrests up more than 40 percent

In 2014, the department made 141 arrests connected to heroin, an increase of about 40 percent from 2013 when arrests ballooned from 44 in 2012 to 101.

After last year’s spike of 230 percent, it would seem like better news that the year over year increase in arrests was limited to 40 percent. O’Malley said he would like to wait and get another six months of data to see if this smaller decrease was a fluke or a trend. He added that the deaths of 13 people last year could also be a factor.

“Concord is a small community,” he said. “You have 13 deaths in 2014. If those 13 people are counted for a certain percentage of violations, that may have had an affect … that’s not to say that it did; it’s just one possibility.”

The department in the last two years has taken a more “aggressive approach by the drug enforcement unit” and “arrested a lot of dealers,” he said. O’Malley added that there had been a lot of educational opportunities and working with the media about the issue. Some heroin users may have also moved out of the area or were revived and “seen the light and gotten help,” he added.

“It’s a good thing that the violations appear to be a lower increase (than 2013),” he said. “But I want to reserve judgment … we’ll go through this year, get more insight, and see.”

The heroin, prostitution mix

In the past, a lot of addicts have been caught up in the process of shoplifting, flipping stolen items for gift cards or cash, burglary, and other crimes in an effort to raise money to buy drugs. Recently though, overdoses, alleged heroin usage, and arrests of young women, and other drug incidents, have also been connected to prostitution incidents around the city, in both local hotels and apartments.

O’Malley confirmed that there had been an uptick in the number of heroin incidents connected to prostitution noting that it was “doubly concerning” because while prostitution was considered by some to be a victimless crime, using the world’s oldest profession to fuel a drug habit was dangerous and negatively affecting everyone involved. While he wouldn’t get into specifics, he said the department was working with hotel owners and managers as well as landlords.

“We have be staying in touch with various people in the community and we are going to be responsive to their needs,” he said of the issue. “It’s not us seeking them and that’s telling. This is not something that is healthy for any community; it can disrupt businesses, it can disrupt neighborhoods and we want to be responsive to those issues.”

Drug arrests rise 8.3%, 2004-2014

During the last decade, overall drug arrests have risen more than 8 percent across the last 10 years. When the heroin arrests are separated from the other drug arrests, while there is a slight increase during the last few years, overall the numbers are scaling down, according to the data.

O’Malley said that most of the arrests in the “other” category were marijuana offenses and prescription medications, but even those were dropping. The tightening of restrictions with prescription drugs, including Oxycodone, also assisted in a decrease in robberies at pharmacies and veterinary clinics. Doctors have also “gotten more savvy,” O’Malley said, to the problem. However, these changes have also led to more people experimenting and using heroin. There aren’t a lot of people arrested for crack or cocaine, which had their heyday in the past, he also noted.

Concord is still safe; more work to be done

Even with these increases, O’Malley noted that New Hampshire “is one of the safest states in the country, overall,” and Concord is “still a pretty good place to live. One overdose is too many, but it’s still a very safe place to live.”

The increases though are still “very concerning” and O’Malley readily admitted that more work needed to be done including working with the media about crime issues, publicizing the department’s efforts, and making sure local, regional, and state public officials and residents understand what the problems are.

“We have made it clear that we have to do our part,” he said. “But this is a community issue; it goes beyond the police department. We can do our part – to aggressively pursue the dealers and obtain intelligence on where this is coming from and responding to the fire department (calls) … but this is all over New England.”

O’Malley added that his biggest fear was heroin “creeping into more mainstream settings.” Some of the people who have overdosed and died came from “normal lives and backgrounds,” he said.

“When it starts becoming more common or more trendy, you’re going to see more deaths,” he added. “You’re starting to see this trend to a younger and younger generation (and) it’s very scary.”

Photos: Heroin from a bust in 2013. The red lined chart shows heroin arrests in recent years. The blue lined chart shows all other drug violations.