Covington heroin bust sign of use in parish

Three years ago after Hurricane Katrina, Covington Police Capt. Jack West first saw evidence heroin had arrived in his small town from the glassy eyed immigrant construction workers, the pipes with residue and wads of cash on drug dealers.

But it wasn’t until last week that the department actually busted a dealer, bag in hand, selling to an addict in a vacant church parking lot. It was the first time in at least 25 years the drug was “seen on the streets,” West said.

“It looks like its here and we’re going to see more,” West said.

With reduced sentences for first time users, purity levels that have surged from 2 percent to up to 90 percent and a street value that is four to five times more profitable than cocaine for dealers, small amounts of heroin have come to St. Tammany, many police agencies and drug rehabilitation centers said.

“It’s definitely making a comeback,” said Capt. Kevin Foltz of the Slidell Police Department. Still those arrests and users are “pretty rare,” he said. “There’s only been a few.”

But while arrests remain low, use of the deadly drug has skyrocketed, said Alyson Branis, a counselor at Addiction Counseling Education Resource LLC., or ACER, which offers rehabilitation programs at its offices in Mandeville, Slidell, Arabie and Metarie.

“There’s a huge increase in heroin abuse in the past six months,” Branis said. “It’s amazing. They’re coming in here younger and younger and they’re all from St. Tammany.”

In the last six months, 20 percent, or 10 of 50 of the Slidell location’s clients, were, or are addicted to heroin, she said. That’s a 100 percent surge from six months ago when five clients reported to being addicted to heroin, she said.

The high is their only concern, she said.

“They’ve all said they’ve had friends die or overdose in front of them and almost all have overdosed themselves,” she said. “Their experiences are amazing to me and they continue to use.”

Even more shocking is the ages of users, she said.

Most report drinking and smoking marijuana at age 10 or 11, she said. In a few years, the booze and pot doesn’t produce the same high and they soon turn to prescription drugs such as painkillers like Oxycontin, Vicoden and Lortabs. That high also wears thin in time.

Then someone suggests heroin, she said.

“If you like that, try this,” Branis said is the common phrase most heroin addicts hear before snorting the drug, then to get a bigger high, injecting it with needles into their veins. West agrees.

Oxycontin, a prescription painkiller, was once dubbed “hillbilly heroin” when it first burst onto the market. Those too poor to buy real heroin, would buy the painkiller from a down-and-out relative, who was prescribed the drug but who needed extra money to pay bills.

Soon the phenomenon took hold and painkillers became the new drug of choice, West said.

He called all painkillers “synthetic heroin” that eventually lead to back alley sales of real heroin — mostly in New Orleans then brought to St. Tammany — or in the case of Covington’s recent bust, a drug deal in a church parking lot.

In that case on Jan. 31, Covington Police noticed Barbara Richardson, 48, of 4176 Upperline Drive in Slidell, parked in the parking lot of Faith Bible Church. It’s was 9:30 a.m., a time when nobody, not even the church’s congregation, parked at the church, West said.

Since several silent burglar alarms had sounded from the church in recent months and armed with the knowledge that a nearby convenience store boasted several recent drug busts, officer Andy Northcutt parked and watched.

Northcutt’s suspicions were aroused when he watched Richardson pass a small package to male subject who came from the vicinity of the church. Once pocketing the package, the man, yet to be caught and arrested, left Richardson and walked back toward the church.

Richardson, noticing, the Covington police officer, fled the church in a 1996 Honda Accord. Northcutt followed, making a stop at 32nd Avenue and Collins Boulevard.

After finding out Richardson’s license was suspended, Northcutt asked and received permission to search the vehicle. He found the bag of heroin. When asked about the substance, Richardson admitted it was heroin and produced a hypodermic syringe from her brassiere, West said.

Richardson was arrested and booked into St. Tammany Parish jail for possession with intent to distribute Schedule I heroin, possession of drug paraphernalia, violation of a drug free zone and driving with a suspended license. As of Wednesday, she was being held in the jail in lieu of a $32,000 bond.

It was the first heroin bust in Covington history, West said.

“We’re used to the marijuana, the methadone, the rock and powder crack cocaine. Now we’re going to have to add heroin to the mix,” West said.