Heroin in the Suburbs

Drug use is not just a city thing. It's incredibly naive to view it that way.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Twenty-seven people from Milwaukee, Chicago and Waukesha County have been charged with being part of a heroin ring that authorities say led to 11 overdoses, five of them fatal, according to federal court documents unsealed Tuesday.

...[M]any of the suspects and victims came from Waukesha County, specifically the Village of Pewaukee. Because people died, the defendants face between 20 years and life in prison if convicted. All but one of the suspects is in custody and that person is being sought.

...Dubbed "Operation Lake Effect," the investigation started in early 2007 when Milwaukee police pulled over Lonnie L. "G-money" Johnson, 31, who is identified as the Chicago-based supplier of the ring, according to a 70-count criminal complaint. Authorities already were working with informants on the ring, which was already being traced into Waukesha County, the complaint said.

...According to the complaint, investigators learned that heroin was brought into Milwaukee every couple weeks and distributed through a network operated by Jermaine J. "Main" Stewart, 24. The drug was distributed to certain areas of Milwaukee, sometimes by couriers on bicycle, and users from Waukesha County would come into the city to buy it. Some of those buyers would then turn around and sell the drug to support their own addiction.

Because the case has been charged as a conspiracy, all members would be culpable for the overdose deaths and face the stiff penalties if convicted.

...James F. Bohn, assistant special agent at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said the purity of heroin sold on the streets has increased over the past 10 years, making it possible for users to snort the drug instead of injecting it. That has eliminated some of the stigma formerly associated with heroin, but it remains highly addictive, regardless of how it is used.

"Heroin is not a recreational drug," Bohn said. "Once you use the drug, you are on that path."

Village of Pewaukee Police Chief Ed Baumann was shocked by how prevalent heroin is in the community.

"The questions are unanswerable," Baumann said. "They are the same questions Ozaukee County had. How did this group of kids get hooked on this poison? I don't know."

[U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic said]... that heroin is not a Milwaukee problem, but a regional one.

"Law enforcement knows drug dealers aren't concerned about city borders," he said.

I have a problem with the assertion that heroin use in the suburbs is somehow more disturbing or shocking than heroin use in Milwaukee.

Why think that just because one doesn't live in the city one is less likely to use drugs and die of an overdose? Why consider drug use beyond the boundaries of the city of Milwaukee more troubling?

What are officials thinking? We have cars.

If one wants drugs, there is someone out there eager to deliver.

Snorting heroin instead of shooting it makes it far less threatening to try and easier to use. That creates more of a market, and that market doesn't stop at county lines.

Breaking up this ring is a victory, a battle won in the war on drugs.

However, I think it's important to note that this victory by law enforcement offers an opportunity for other suppliers to step in. Someone out there is hearing this news and thinking of profiting.

Permanently breaking that cycle requires that the demand dry up and people make choices that are in their own best interests.

Heroin is NOT a recreational drug.