Crime & Safety
Heroin Overdoses are Target of New Plan
Cuyahoga County launches initiative on dangerous street drug
Cuyahoga County is responding to a dramatic increase in heroin use -- and overdose deaths -- in Cleveland and the suburbs by investigating people who lose their lives to the street drug.
Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald Wednesday announced a new initiative aimed at curbing deaths by heroin overdoses, according to various news sources, including cleveland.com.
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The program includes a new website and an investigation by the Medical Examiner's Office of each person who dies from a heroin overdose to see if there was a way the death could have been prevented by some type of intervention.
Authorities say heroin use on Ohio has become a near-epidemic, with the addictive drug more available and cheaper than most other narcotics.
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Experts say people addicted to presecription medication often switch to heroin because it is less expensive and easier to get.
As of mid-June, 79 people in Cuyahoga County had died from heroin use this year, compared to 107 in all of 2011.
In Strongsville, the drug itself doesn't turn up that often -- officers see more marijuana and cocaine on the streets, according to Detective Lt. John Janowski.
But they see the impact of heroin every day.
"We don't arrest a lot of people with heroin," Janowski said. "But a lot of our thieves are heroin addicts."
Police say a shocking number of shoplifters caught at the mall and other Strongsville businesses are addicted to heroin, stealing to support their expensive habit.
"It's hard to maintain a job and be a heroin addict. You can do marijuana or other drugs and still work," Janowski said.
But the desperation to feed a heroin addiction often drives people to break into houses and cars and -- more often than many people realize -- steal from stores.
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