WJLA - The Fight Against Heroin in Virginia County

News Article

By: Rich Reeve

Loudoun County, Virginia is a suburban enclave, that doesn't look like a haven for drugs.

But authorities were voicing growing concerns about the rise in heroin overdoses in the area.

"We're seeing way too many overdoses out there," said Loundoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman. "You cannot arrest your way out of this problem."

For Erika Potter, it wasn't just a crime problem. It was personal.

"It's become more prominent. It's easier to get, but it's always been there," Potter, the Pucellville mother of four said.

"It's not your junkie anymore that's OD'ing," she added

Potter is speaking out after the loss of her brother Jason, a Leesburg resident, who overdosed in September 2014. He was 37 years old.

"He had bought what he thought to be cocaine, and it was laced with fentanyl and that's what killed him," Potter said.

Concerns about overdoses of heroin and fentanyl, a synthetic form of the drug, were reaching the breaking point in the Loundoun County area.

"We have heroin in our community," said U.S. Representative Barbara Comstock (R-10th District). "We've had 728 deaths (statewide) in 2014, which now exceeds traffic deaths."

At a Friday night town hall-style meeting, residents, political leaders, and law enforcement learned there were thirty-five heroin overdoses in the county in the past year. Nine of them were fatal.

"Not only is it a really bad drug, but it's very unstable," Chapman said. "When you take it you never know what you're taking and that's why we're having so many overdoses."

So what to do about it?

Some sheriff's deputies now carry Narcan, a substance that counteracts the effects of an overdose.

County leaders are also studying the idea of a diversion program, where addicts would undergo court-ordered drug treatment, in lieu of jail time.

"Drug addicts are not bad people trying to be good, we are sick people trying to get well," explained Nick Yacoub, a substance abuse counselor who once battled his own drug addiction.

For her part, Potter believes warnings about heroin need to start early.

"DARE is wonderful, but it ends in fifth grade," she said. "Middle school is where these kids really pick up starting to do these things--middle school, high school."

Police said one of the biggest problems is that heroin is cheap.

Only $15 to $20 will buy you about 4 ounces--plenty enough to get high, or in some cases, be lethal.

Potter hopes the message that heroin and other drugs can quickly turn deadly, will get out.

"I don't want to see anybody else go through this," she said. "It's completely avoidable and preventable."

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