With Heroin Purity Among Highest In Nation, Toms River, Ocean County Fight Back

As authorities look at more avenues to combat the heroin crisis in Ocean County and New Jersey, a warning has come from federal authorities that the purity level of the drug coming into the state has risen by 12 percent in the last three years.

An advisory issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration last week says the average purity level of heroin coming into New Jersey is 58 percent, one of the highest purity levels in the United States. Most of the heroin coming into the state is of South American origin and comes in through the seaports in Newark, Elizabeth and Philadelphia, according to the DEA.

In New Jersey, heroin contributed to 557 deaths last year, 112 of those in Ocean County. To try to put a stop to the epidemic, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office has rolled out a number of initiatives that have begun to take root statewide as well, including a pawn shop database and strict liability prosecution of drug dealers.

While law enforcement looks at ways to battle the drug dealing, state legislators are set to introduce a package of 21 bills that will address the problem from the health care aspect, according to NJ.com. The bills would expand funding available to treatment providers and patients, increase oversight of state facilities and physicians, and reevaluate how the state’s educational community addresses prevention and recovery.

State Sen. Joseph Vitale (District 19) told NJ.com he hopes the legislation will mark a shift in how New Jersey looks at addiction, addressing it as a mental health issue rather than a law enforcement problem.

Ocean County law enforcement personnel were among the first to be issued naloxone, an antidote that can be given to someone showing signs of a heroin overdose. The pilot program in Ocean County has been so successful in saving lives that Narcan use has been implemented in a number of other municipalities.

The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office also has held training sessions for other law enforcement agencies to share its approach curbing the sale of stolen items to pawn shops -- to thereby cut off an avenue for a quick payday that can then be spent to feed a drug habit -- and on its approach to strict liability, where drug dealers are being prosecuted for supplying the drugs that lead to fatal overdoses.

There is evidence that the measures are beginning to have an impact: There have been 53 drug overdose deaths in Ocean County to date this year, compared with 88 by this time in 2013, according to the prosecutor’s office. There have also been 94 Narcan saves in Ocean County since officers began carrying it in April.

The strict liability forum on Tuesday was attended by officers from 70 police departments in the state, according to an article on NJ.com.

In Ocean County, police officers are directed to treat every drug overdose death scene as a crime scene, collecting evidence and starting the investigative measures needed to track back the drug to the seller, Prosecutor Joseph Coronato told NJ.com. Timing is of the essence, which is why local police need to be trained, he said.

They pursue cases even when they lead outside Ocean County, Coronato said. In July, Dahmir Jones of Trenton was charged with supplying the heroin to a Stafford Township man who overdosed in his home, according to an NJ.com article.

Overall, the county has had 15 people charged with the drug-induced death of another in just over a year, according to Al Della Fave, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, with 12 having entered a guilty plea already (the highest in the state).

It’s the comprehensive package -- Narcan, drug forums, drug education in schools, K9 searches in schools, prescription pill dropoff programs, the pawn shop database program and the strict liability prosecution -- that Coronato and the prosecutor’s office, in conjunction with the Ocean County Chiefs of Police and law enforcement throughout the county, hope will bring put an end to the drug crisis, Della Fave said, “to make Ocean County a safe place to live and raise a family.”

(PHOTO: A pile of heroin seized in a drug bust by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Operations Unit. Credit: Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office)