Heroin makes a resurgence on the Central Coast

Heroin is making a resurgence on the Central Coast.

Within the last few weeks, we’ve heard of several heroin busts in the area. On April 3, Salinas Police made a $25,000 heroin bust. Two pounds of the opioid were found during a SWAT raid in King City. The next day, Hollister Police arrested a man allegedly carrying stolen property and using heroin.

These cases prompted us to call other law enforcement agencies to find out more. They say the same thing: Heroin is something they’re seeing more of and they believe it’s part of a trend being seen across the country.

“We’ve had heroin in Monterey County for as long as I can remember,” Monterey County Sheriff’s Commander John Thornburg said. “But we recently have started to see an increase. Not necessarily across the board, on every shift, but in speaking to our patrol guys, we are seeing more and more heroin from the streets and more and more arrests.”

Salinas Police and the Peninsula Regional Violence and Narcotics Team are seeing the same thing.

They believe it is tied to a nationwide opioid crisis. Heroin is cheaper than other prescription drugs like Oxycontin and it’s easier to come by.

In response, more agencies are carrying a life-saving antidote that can stop opioid overdoses. Police in Carmel, Pacific Grove, Seaside and Santa Cruz are now carrying Narcan. If they suspect someone is overdosing, they can spray the medicine into their nose to stop it.

The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office is in the process of getting a grant to stock their patrol cars with the counteragent. Then they will learn how to safely administer it to others and themselves.

“We do have to train on it, here’s hoping we never have to administer it to ourselves but that will be covered,” Thornburg said. “With Fentanyl and all that stuff, the warnings have been going out to our personnel for the last couple of years, to make sure they are aware of the dangers.”

The most recent data about opioid deaths and overdoses from the California Department of Public Health is from 2016. We found between Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties, there were 49 deadly opioid overdoses and 56 that required hospitalizations.