Alarmed at the rising use of prescription opiates and the purity of heroin available in Minnesota, an array of state commissioners, prosecutors, doctors and judges called Thursday for a statewide drug-abuse strategy that centers on early education and intervention.
"The key to this strategy is prevention -- reaching people before the downward cycle of substance abuse leads to the destruction of families," Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson said. She spoke at a news conference called to unveil a campaign to strengthen drug-prevention efforts using schools, drug courts, correctional facilities, the medical community and family-based counseling.
Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Tom Roy said the state also needs increased chemical dependency treatment for prison inmates, an overwhelming number of whom are addicted to drugs before they enter prison.
"We only have 800 treatment beds, and we are not meeting the needs of our offenders," Roy said. "There are more than 100,000 former offenders on our streets now. This is a life-and-death issue."
To build support for the strategy, Jesson and other officials will begin touring outstate communities in coming weeks, recruiting allies and gathering ideas about which programs work and why others fail.
Last year, more than 10 percent of metro area residents who entered treatment program reported that heroin use was their primary drug problem -- up sharply from 2007, according to a new report prepared by Carol Falkowski, the departing director of the Human Services Department's chemical health division. Another 7.7 percent said other opiates, primarily prescription painkillers, were their main problem. Non-metro residents reported similar increases, though they were much more likely to use prescription opiates than heroin.
For at least the past three years, Mexican drug cartels have flooded Minneapolis with high volumes of cheap and near-pure heroin, a simple economic strategy designed to increase demand and one that has left law enforcement and social service authorities on the defensive. The amount of heroin seized across the state rose 78 percent from 2010 to 2011, according to the Department of Public Safety. Arrests for heroin possession during that time rose from 108 to 206.
Prescription opiates seized during that period indicate the immense task that schools and the medical community face. For example, authorities seized 944 units of oxycodone -- similar to heroin because of its strong euphoric effect -- in 2010. The next year, that figure climbed to nearly 2,600 units.
