Speaking Up

Shelby County’s growing heroin problem follows a problem with prescription medications.

“No one starts out sticking a needle in their arm,” said Lt. Clay Hammac, commander of the Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force. “There’s usually progressive steps.”

Heroin addictions can develop out of dependency on a legitimate opioid prescription or through experimentation that progresses from alcohol or marijuana to pills or other drugs, Hammac said.

A quarter of the county’s drug overdose deaths in 2014 were heroin overdoses, and a majority of those victims were between 22 and 29 years old, Hammac said. To fight these overdoses and to battle addiction in Shelby County, the task force works to educate the community on drug use throughout the county. 

In the past three years, the task force has made 159 presentations to groups ranging from parent teacher organizations to homeowners associations.

“That’s a little more than one a week,” Hammac said. “That just shows you how engaged the community is. They want to hear from somebody in the business; they want to hear from someone on this side. They genuinely want to know ‘What do we need to be looking for in our children’s lives?’”

Dalton Smith, a former Spain Park High School student and recovering heroin addict, said he has seen a change in how people discuss addiction. There are no demographic boundaries for addiction, and being open about the problem helps reduce the stigma surrounding it, Smith said. He has seen community members wanting to help with education efforts, even if they don’t have personal experience with addiction, he said. 

“They want to help. They want to get out into the community and raise awareness and see what they can do,” Smith said. “I think that’s huge.”

During presentations, the task force does not limit its scope to parents. Everyone from a little league coach to a teacher to a boss can be a potential influence in a young person’s life, Hammac said, and it is important they have an interest in the young adults in Shelby County.

“Our goal whenever we’re doing these presentations is prevention,” Hammac said. “That is what our primary focus is. We can’t just stand up in front of a group of parents or teachers and say, ‘Drugs are bad. People are dying from drug overdoses.’ We have to make it personal. We have to talk about what we see here in Shelby County.”

Prevention is the easiest side of the discussion, Hammac said. That’s where they provide information about drug use trends and ways to communicate with young people. The harder part, however, is when an arrest or another enforcement action is taken.

“It’s not too late at that point in time, but it feels as though that damage is done already,” Hammac said. “So parents are trying to play catch up.”

Fighting addiction in Shelby County is also personal for law enforcement officers, Hammac said. There’s nothing more life-changing in an officer’s life than delivering a death notice, he said, so they have a personal reason to fight overdose deaths. 

“We don’t ever want to have to make another [death] notification as long as we live, but we know that’s not possible,” Hammac said. “We’re not going to win the war on drugs overnight, but one of the things that we can do is we can get the information out there aggressively and let parents know this is a real problem, and we can’t defeat this without your help.”

For anyone hoping to join the conversation on addiction, Hammac said community members can get involved in school-sponsored programs or in countywide programs such as the Shelby County Drug Free Coalition. The coalition meets every two months, and Hammac said he often will see attendees who are simply concerned parents. The next meeting is Jan. 27 at 8:30 a.m.

For more information about the Drug Enforcement Task Force, visit dtf.shelbyal.com. 

Speaking Up is the second installment in a three-part series about heroin use and addiction in Shelby County. Look for the third installment, focused on school programs about drug use in the February 280 Living.