St. Joseph County Drug Unit being shut down amid uptick of violence

https://wsbt.com/news/local/st-joseph-county-drug-unit-being-shut-down

St. Joseph County Prosecutor Ken Cotter said that even thought the Drug Investigation Unit is being shut down, that doesn’t mean the fight against drugs is over.

Cotter said it’s a combination of Drug Unit success and resources and that with the uptick of violence in Saint Joseph County, they needed the Drug Unit officers to be able to focus on other issues, too.

“In 2016 we had 58 overdose deaths,” said Cotter.

But now so far in 2019, St. Joseph County has had 12 overdose deaths, so the Drug Investigation Unit will be shut down beginning January 1.

“There are fewer drugs throughout our community today than there were five years ago,” said Cotter. “People are still overdosing. People are no longer dying in the manner that they were before.”

Cotter says that Narcan, a lifesaving treatment, has also had a huge impact on reducing overdose numbers.

“The difference is that folks are taking seriously that these drugs kill,” said Cotter, “and so more and more people are having Narcan. Our first responders five years ago did not have Narcan, now they all carry it. Family members are carrying Narcan.”

Now the officers in the Drug Unit can be used for an even more pressing issue.

“Everything is a priority to us,” said Scott Ruszkowski, South Bend Police Chief. “And right now, we have an overwhelming amount of violence in our city, and we are going to concentrate those resources there.”

Drugs remain an issue, but gun violence is even more concerning.

“I would love to have the unit remain, but I also have to be realistic,” said Cotter, “because there is only so many taxes that folks want to pay to be able to supply those law enforcement officers to do all the things that we want them to do.”

Their number one priority in allocating resources is avoiding more deaths.

“Because nothing is more important than a person’s life,” said Cotter. “You can recover from anything else except death.”

The prosecutor’s office wanted to make clear that overdoses will still be investigated, but that the goal is to get more of the people committing violent crimes behind bars or prevent them in the first place.

This is one of those stories that what is said … could only be a portion of the full story…  So now this Indiana county has a increased violence and increased gun violence..

Across this country we are having a increase in meth, cocaine and since MJ – in all forms – is illegal in Indiana … so is all of this street violence mostly involving “street gangs” fighting over turf to sell these illegal products ?

Just because someone is a addict does not mean that they are STUPID… surely they have seen how LETHAL the “Heroin” that is being sold on the street because most of it contains an illegal fentanyl analog.

So they have switched substances which they are abusing… typically addicts have a favorite substance,  but often finances forces them to use what is most available or they can afford.

For at least 100 yrs, our country has had some sort of substance abuse issues…. the difference from time to time is the primary substance that is being abused will change from time to time.

Filed under: General Problems