by

Fred Swift

Hamilton County Reporter

The number of Hamilton County deaths from dangerous opioid drug overdose continues to rise despite efforts by police to get dealers off the street. County Coroner John Chalfin said this week that 41 individuals have suffered fatal drug overdoses so far this year.

Toxicology reports are pending on three more suspected cases. The drug fatality count for all of 2017 was 36.

While few if any of those deaths have resulted in conviction of a dealer who supplied a fatal dose of drugs, Prosecutor Lee Buckingham says a new law that became effective in July does provide for new and more severe sentences for a person who is responsible for providing drugs that kill.

In the meantime, police seem to be counting on the Hamilton-Boone County Drug Task Force to lead the effort against drug dealers. The task force of eight detectives headed by Dwight Frost has had success in arresting a large number of suppliers. In 2017 there were 170 arrests.

The suspects might be local residents or from neighboring counties. The task force authority is not limited to county boundaries. “We target only dealers,” Frost said. Users may be charged by police agencies, but dealers are considered the bigger problem.

Another problem is the fact that 54 percent of arrests involve repeat offenders. While convictions are frequent through plea agreements, sentences are often not severe. Offenders are often placed in work release or on probation, thanks to changes in the state criminal code in recent years.

Local officials including Sheriff Mark Bowen feel many of the dangerous drugs in Hamilton County are purchased by local residents who go into Indianapolis to do their buying. A few years ago meth was being produced at so-called ‘meth labs’ in many outlying areas. But, Frost says users can now get the product, probably in Indy, “courtesy of the Mexican cartels.”

The most dangerous and often lethal drug is a combination of heroin and fentanyl which the coroner often finds as the cause of local drug deaths. Also becoming more common now among hard drug users is a mixture of cocaine and meth, Frost observes.

Officials don’t predict any certain end in sight for the drug crisis which is national in scope. It often drops off the front pages because cases are becoming so frequent. Individual drug-related deaths locally are often unknown to all but immediate family or close friends of a victim. This is partially due to privacy laws or family embarrassment.

Coroner Chalfin finds that most deaths in the county involve younger people in their 20s and 30s, generally more males than females. They seem to have enough money to feed their hard drug habit, although Sheriff Bowen points out that it is not uncommon for some to resort to burglary or robbery to finance their purchases.