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Summit Addresses Heroin in Door County

The Door County Alcohol and Other Drug Coalition sponsored an event at Crossroads at Big Creek on March 24 to address heroin use in Door County. While not a widespread issue on the peninsula, increasing heroin use across the state led to some concerns about the drug crossing into the county borders.

A document released by the Wisconsin Heroin Working Group in 2014 reads, “Heroin use in Wisconsin has steadily increased since 2008 and the trend is expected to continue.” The drug is becoming increasingly available in the state and heroin-related deaths have increased by more than 50 percent in the past year.

Locally, two Door County men died in heroin-related incidents in 2014, further prompting concern for the drug’s prevalence in Door County.

The summit at Crossroads brought four speakers to comment on the Four Pillar Approach:  prevention, education, enforcement and treatment. Sturgeon Bay Police Chief Arleigh Porter emceed the night, opening with a jarring stand against the increasing concern.

“If [heroin] gets roots and takes off, it will change our community dramatically… We have a quality of life that is second to none in the country and that will change with this drug,” said Porter.

Sarah Thomsen, reporter for WBAY-TV 2, was first to speak on a series the station did in 2014 as the heroin problem was brought to the area’s attention.

Thomson showed the series of four videos highlighting drug use in Green Bay. The videos included testimony of a woman from a well-to-do neighborhood in Green Bay involved in heroin use, citing that privilege does not excuse someone of drug use.

Still, the cheap cost of heroin is a significant driver toward increased use. This, paired with the decreased availability of prescription opiates such as Vicodin and Oxytocin, makes heroin more attractive to drug users.

Cases of heroin use in Wisconsin have increased by nearly 100 percent since 2009, according to Jeremiah Winscher, senior special agent with the Department of Justice. This is happening while cocaine use has decreased due to its high cost and marijuana use has been stabilized for years.

“That’s what’s most alarming to me,” said Winscher. “The problem is not unique to any city or area. It’s everywhere. And I hate saying that.”

Winscher’s department is tasked with addressing all narcotic use throughout northeast Wisconsin, but Winscher has dealt almost exclusively with heroin cases.

He described how heroin moves throughout the country and the Midwest, on a route coined the “heroin highway.” The drug is extracted from the poppy plant, commonly grown in Afghanistan. It is then shuttled through Mexico and into the United States.

Chicago serves as the primary hub for the Midwest and the heroin highway follows Interstate 43 up into Green Bay. The quantity of heroin increased as demand grew in the state since 2009.

“Dealers moved to Green Bay because there was plenty of money to be made in the north woods,” said Winscher.

As heroin enters Green Bay, it can leech into the Door County community.

Chief Porter coordinated a task force with Kewaunee County to combat the rising concern. Five different police departments pooled resources to create the division. Each department provides funds to three full-time employees to pay for vehicles, communication and to buy drugs from dealers during investigations.

While the task force is attempting to address individual heroin cases in the county, the group is more concerned with tackling the dealers who supply to individual users. By dismantling the entire system of drug trafficking, Porter hopes to prevent any entry of the drug across county lines. Individual cases only hack at the branches of the problem instead of the roots.

“We are not going to arrest our way out of this problem,” said Porter.