By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
After a recent increase in drug overdoses in Hays, including two deaths, law enforcement is concerned national trends of increased opioid and other drug use has made its way to the city.
"Heroin now has become common," Hays Police Chief Don Scheibler said. "It's not uncommon for us to find it in the street. It's not uncommon for us to have an overdose. Those things were just unheard of not that long ago."
"There have always been drugs in Hays, unfortunately," said J.B. Burkholder, HPD detective. "What we are seeing right now is that people — local people, people from this area — are driving to the bigger cities, mainly Wichita, Topeka, Kansas City, Denver, and obtaining their meth, heroin and marijuana and bringing it back into Hays."
Nationally, drug use, especially opioid abuse, has skyrocketed, and leaders at the National Institute of Health see additional stress brought on by the pandemic as a catalyst.
"We have seen an exacerbation of the opioid epidemic, as evidenced by the number of people who have died," said Nora Volkow, Director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, in a recent conversation with NIH director Francis Collins. "Already, in the 12 months ending in July 2020, there was a 24 percent increase in mortality from overdoses. Within those numbers, there was close to a 50 percent increase in mortality associated with fentanyl. We’re also seeing an increase, not just in deaths from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, but in deaths from stimulant drugs, like cocaine and methamphetamine. And the largest increases have been very much driven by drug combinations.
"So, we have the perfect storm. We have people stressed to their limits by decreases in the economy, the loss of jobs, the death of loved ones. On the other hand, we see dealers taking the opportunity to bring in drugs such as synthetic opioids and synthetic stimulants and distribute them to a much wider extent than previously seen."
Burkholder said there are various reasons drug use has been increasing in the area, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
And heroin and other opioids working their way across the state from the east is particularly troubling.
"That's the progression of most anything," Burkholder said, "from clothing trends to drugs. It always progresses its way out here eventually, and it gets introduced to the community. Those individuals involved in that lifestyle pick it up, and it just becomes the new thing."
From that point, it becomes more available as demand increases and more supply is desired.
"Heroin has been a challenge for those communities on the East Coast and West Coast and metro areas for a long time, and it has just finally worked here," Scheibler said. "It's going to be a challenge for us."
He said it should be a priority for both law enforcement as well as the community.
"Failure for us to recognize that heroin is in our community ... will be a huge mistake," Scheibler said. "We have to continue to focus on it and continue to be proactive."
Stemming the tide of rising opioid use, he said, means tackling the lack of enforcement created during the pandemic when many of the typical consequences for felony drug activity were curtailed for precautionary measures.
"That has created problems, and as we have come out of the pandemic and get more proactive in this area, there has got to be consequences for engaging in that type of criminal activity," Scheibler said.
"We see the criminal become emboldened," Burkholder said.
He said offenders were often not immediately detained after being cited for drug-related crimes as part of efforts to keep jail populations low during the pandemic.
"They don't have that instant slap on the wrist," Burkholder said. "It will come, but it's not that immediate effect of disruption in their daily lives.
"We are fighting that and battling that."
Recently, that fight has become more noticeable, with an increase in overdoses in Hays, leading to two deaths in May.
"This is dangerous for our community," Scheibler said.
Adding to the concern is increased drug use in youth, he said, with marijuana use becoming more normalized and use among high schoolers and even middle schoolers are identified.
"It becomes their lifestyle," Burkholder said. "That's what they know. It's the same as any addiction you may have. Once it becomes ingrained in your head, it's harder to get out the longer it has been there.
"They don't know what this will do to their mentality later in life and drive their ability to make wise decisions. These are young people making decisions that will literally change the rest of their lives."
While the department is increasing focus on drug activity in Hays, he said stopping the rise in use and abuse will depend on the community stepping up as well.
"The only way that we can do our job is with the city and the citizens helping us out," Burkholder said. "If they are not willing to work with us, then there is so much information that we are inevitably going to miss."
He said reports to the department about suspected activity allow the department to find access points to the local drug scene and help stop other crimes often connected to drug abuse.
"We are all affected by the drug world," Burkholder said. "We see other crimes on the rise because of that stuff."
He said increases in burglaries and theft are directly tied to drug use as users turn to ever-increasing risky behavior to support their habit.
In an effort to stem the tide of increased methenamine and opioids coming into the area, Burkholder said the department is fully supportive of investigations into the avenues drugs arrive in Hays.
"We continue to work hard and pursue those to the best of our ability," he said. "It has become a priority for us."
Scheibler said an asset in the fight is the Ellis County Drug Enforcement Unit, made up of agents from the Kansas Bureau of Investigations, Ellis County Sheriff's Office deputies, the Ellis County Attorney's office and Hays Police Department officers.
But even with that resource, he said community reporting is vital.
"It's a priority for that group to target those involved in distributing drugs in our community," he said. "That's where the tips from our community, tips from the citizens, people calling in and giving us direction allows us to confirm some things and allows us to build cases. But we can't do it by ourselves. It has to be a community effort."