Heroin proves a formidable foe in suburban Ohio county

HAMILTON, Ohio -- Scenes from a community under siege:

• It's been a hectic morning for the Butler County coroner, who's investigating three new deaths, all of them suspected heroin overdoses. If Dr. Lisa Mannix's office confirms it as the cause, they will add to a deadly pace well ahead of last year's record toll.
• Less than a mile away, Steve Monnin spreads out recent heroin-related finds on his red pickup truck's hood in a riverside park that's become a spot for drug deals, shooting up and sex acts performed in return for heroin. There are four needles and syringes, a couple of scorched spoons and a knife from along the Great Miami River.
• In the same downtown building as the coroner's office, Judge Daniel Gattermeyer keeps cases moving through his municipal court session's docket. A young man in handcuffs turns to his mother and grandmother in the courtroom and says "I love you" as he's led away after appearing on a heroin charge. His was one of a half-dozen cases involving heroin-related counts that morning. Back in his chambers later, the judge said he's certain several other suspects who were before him on theft and burglary charges were driven by heroin.

"It's a terrible problem," said Gattermeyer, a former prosecutor who has seen heroin gain a foothold and spread rapidly within a few years. "Now it's just crazy."

Butler County, Ohio: home to growing northern Cincinnati suburbs; two older mill cities; rural burgs nestled amid farmland; a college town; about 374,000 residents, including outgoing House Speaker John Boehner; and a heroin scourge, despite a range of community efforts to turn it back.

What the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called a national epidemic is hitting hard here. The CDC says heroin-related deaths nationally nearly doubled from 2011 to 2013, when 8,200 deaths were linked to heroin. In Butler County, they have nearly quadrupled in three years.

Heroin-related deaths rose from 30 in 2012 to 103 in 2014, with 86 recorded through the first half of 2015.

Explanations for the county's heroin problem start with location. It lies between Cincinnati and Dayton. Interstate 75 cuts through it, and easy access to four other interstates and highways keep supplies flowing in. And like other counties that had problems with abuse of prescription painkillers that have become more regulated, Butler officials increasingly have seen users making the dangerous switch to cheaper, easier-to-get heroin for numbing themselves.

"Heroin's a whole different ballgame," Melissa Smith-Procter, 42, said. "I always call it the devil, because it's something you would sell your soul for."

The lifelong Hamilton resident said she's had two ex-boyfriends, several other friends and two women she was in treatment with die from heroin. She recently celebrated 20 months of sobriety.

At the coroner's office, Mannix studies the latest reports. In a few hours, two couples have been found in residences after apparent heroin overdoses. Only one of the four survived.

She sighed.

"Unfortunately, it's becoming very common," she said.

Last year's heroin toll was among 137 total deaths from all overdoses, marking the first time drug overdose deaths outnumbered other causes of death such as traffic accidents, homicides and natural causes investigated by the county coroner. The dead have been found on porches, in cars, parks, alleys, "everywhere," Mannix said.

"Sometimes the syringe is still in their arm; that's how quick it is."

Butler County has not ignored the problem.

There have been community Heroin Summits; police go after traffickers in task forces and special units; churches have banded in a "Hope Over Heroin" campaign that included a three-day festival drawing thousands; people have held rallies wearing T-shirts that say "Heroin Sucks"; and recent events such as a "Harleys Over Heroin" motorcycle ride and "Bash Heroin" concert raised funds for anti-heroin work.

One of the new cases Mannix investigated was the death of 18-year-old Alison Shuemake of Middletown, Ohio. Her parents later named heroin as the cause of death in her obituary in an effort to draw more attention to the toll.

Monnin, 57, who moved across Hamilton with his wife from a neighborhood beset by drugs, has made a crusade of trying to win back Combs Park from drug use for the sake of family gatherings, fishing and other outdoor activities. He confronts people when he spots illicit activities, despite threats.

"The dopers don't like me," he said. "We're not going to stop them, but we can get them out of here."

Sojourner Recovery Services, a not-for-profit treatment center that has expanded capacity by 80 percent in a year, opened "sober living" housing for recovering addicts, has cut wait times by months and introduced a pretreatment counseling program.

Scott Gehring, the center's CEO, said he's certain the expansion in services has saved lives, as have the awareness campaigns.

"We're just still fighting an uphill battle," Gehring said.

Another setback has come from the rise in abuse of the painkiller fentanyl, often combined with heroin. Butler had the fourth-highest number of fentanyl-related deaths among Ohio counties in 2014.

"The numbers don't show any positive impact at this point," Mannix said. "But I think that's going to be a big, big ship to turn around."