LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB-TV) -- Local police are winning the war on prescription drugs, but it has a deadly downside.
Authorities are seeing a big increase in the use of heroin. They say that now that some prescription drugs are harder to obtain, more users are turning to heroin.
"My drugs of choice, when I first started, were alcohol and marijuana. But after that, I started using oxycontin and opana," says Brett Schmidt, a recovering heroin addict.
For several years, Schmidt had a pretty serious drug habit, but using oxycontin and opana to get high wasn't cheap.
He says,"They were raising the price and I had to... I pretty much had two or three jobs just to support my habit."
And that's when he found a cheaper alternative. "After that, I just started going to heroin because it was a lot cheaper, and I could find it a lot easier than I could the pain pills," says Schmidt.
But after two years of using heroin to get high, Schmidt found himself at an all-time low. "It just took my life. Within two years, I lost everything."
Schmidt eventually turned to the Healing Place to get help and treatment.
"We are definitely seeing a huge increase in the number of people addicted to heroin that are seeking our recovering services," says Karen Hascal, the president of the Healing Place. "A lot of the people that we have are moving from prescription drugs to heroin because it's easily accessible. It's less expensive."
Metro police are seeing the same increase. "It's pretty much all across the board as far as our eight patrol divisions. We've seen a higher spike in our arrests in our 3rd division areas," says Lt. Col. Kenton Buckner.
Police say in addition to the risk of going to jail, heroin has another dangerous, perhaps even deadly, downside. Buckner says, "Of course with the heroin use, there are a lot of needle users. With that comes the increase of AIDS and the other types of medical situations that come with that."
And so far, the risks have been enough to keep Brett Schmidt grounded.
"Six months this coming Monday," says Schmidt.
Police suspect there have also been a number of deaths and suicides in the area connected to heroin use.
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