One highway that dissects Ohio from Athens County to Lima has seen such a significant increase in drug seizures that it has been dubbed, for some, the “heroin highway.”
In January of this year, the Ohio State Highway Patrol seized a total of 455 grams of heroin on state Route 33 throughout the Jackson District, which includes Athens County and nine surrounding counties, compared to a total of seven grams seized in January 2012. This is an increase of 6,400 percent.
These numbers are indicative of a “significant” heroin increase statewide, said Lt. Anne Ralston, spokesperson for the State Highway Patrol.
“There is an opiate addiction epidemic that we’ve seen here in Ohio with the pill mills and people addicted to oxycodone and oxycontin,” Ralston said. “Those are all opiate-based drugs.”
The State Highway Patrol has been cracking down on pills in recent years, so with fewer opiate-based pills on the street, people will start looking for other opiate-based drugs, she added.
Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly said his office has seen neither an increase nor a decrease in heroin seizures in the county, but he has seen an increase in methamphetamine use.
“Heroin has been around for the last few years,” he said. “We have had a problem with prescription pill abuse in Ohio.”
As of March 18, the State Highway Patrol had cited 23 drug violations this year, which is already higher than the 18 total drug violations that were cited in 2012, according to the State Highway Patrol’s website.
People who traffic drugs see it as a business, using supply and demand thought processes, Ralston said.
“We know that people are trafficking drugs in Ohio in large quantities,” Ralston said. “We deploy resources where they’re going to be most effective.”
There are routes and highways the Ohio State Highway Patrol knows drug traffickers are using. Though Ralston said the patrol does not exclude any routes, some routes are patrolled more than others.
“Obviously, Route 33 goes directly from Columbus to Southeastern Ohio,” she said. “It’s definitely a road we work quite a bit.”
Kelly said he has heard of the nickname “heroin highway” for Route 33, adding it is a popular route for drug traffickers.
“It’s part of the infrastructure of Ohio,” Kelly said. “When you can take state Route 33 through that corridor all the way up and get on a highway clear up to Toledo, then obviously we’re going to have that corridor (for traffickers).”
Kelly added that when the Nelsonville bypass opens, traffic through Southeast Ohio will increase.
Kelly added that “molly,” a form of ecstasy, has his office’s attention, but that his deputies do not focus on just one drug at a time.
“It’s not just about a drug,” Kelly said. “It’s about a drug epidemic.”
ls114509@ohiou.edu
