Michigan Part of Major Heroin, Opioid Pipeline

Michigan is part of a major drug pipeline that has caused an alarming surge in the use of prescription painkillers and heroin, Justice Department authorities warned this week.

“We know in Michigan that we’ve seen a huge spike in prescription pill abuse,” U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade of the Eastern District of Michigan said at a press conference, according to a Detroit Free Press report.

“We’ve also seen a serious resurgence in heroin as addicts turn to that as a cheaper alternative for their opioid addiction,”McQuade said. “That has resulted in some very significant problems in Michigan and we seem to be exporting our problems to other states.”

Stay Connected:

• Get the Free Daily Newsletter So You Don’t Miss a Day on “The Patch”

The press conference was held in conjunction with a major drug summit Wednesday in Detroit. Michigan and five other Midwest states – Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia – are part of the pipeline.

McQuade said drug traffickers are establishing new markets outside of Michigan – a major producer of heroin – to avoid rival gangs.

Heroin trafficking “knows no boundaries,” McQuade said. “It’s not a city versus suburb thing.”

Tell Us:

• What’s the best way – prevention, law enforcement, a combination or some other method? – to combat an increase in heroin and opioid use?

Authorities said heroin overdoses have tripled from 2010 to 2013. Last year, deaths from all opioids in the Midwest increased by 62 percent, including 43,000 deaths from heroin overdoses. In southeast Michigan, 60 people in Wayne and Washtenaw counties have died since the beginning of the year of overdoses of heroin and fentanyl. Oakland County authorities say heroin overdoses doubled from 2013 to 2014.

In the Eastern District of Michigan, McQuade has established Project HOPE (Heroin, Opioid Prevention and Enforcement) targeting those traffickers whose distribution results in the death or an overdose.

The U.S. attorneys all agreed to participate in anti-heroin and prescription pill programs in their district. They’re also discussing a federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force program to track the movement of heroin and prescription drugs from Michigan and Ohio to other states.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that each day in the United States, 44 people die of a prescription painkiller overdose. The CDC also said that opioid sales quadrupled from 1999 to 2010. At the same time, opioid deaths

Prevention is an important part of the anti-drug strategy, McQuade said.