The low cost of heroin has fueled the rise in DUIs and addictions in Carbon County, according to law enforcement officials.

Carbon Sheriff Tony Harvilla, Lehighton Borough Police Chief Brian Biechy and Pennsylvania state trooper Justin Magluilo addressed the issue of opioids in the county at the Carbon Chamber and Economic Development Corporation’s leadership meeting this week.Biechy, who has worked as a police officer for over 15 years in the Lehighton borough, was named chief in 2013.Biechy said DUI arrests with methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana have increased over his long tenure with the force.“We pick up 10-12 DUIs a month, only two or three out of them are alcohol related,” he said.“When I first started working as an officer in 1988, if I went out and got someone with a dime bag of pot I was doing good. If you got one bag of heroin back then you we’re calling people up and saying, ‘Hey, guess what I got.’ Now you can buy a bundle of heroin for only $8,” he said.Biechy said accessibility and affordability have led to the growth of the epidemic.“Carbon and Monroe sit between Philadelphia, Hazleton, Allentown and Reading. We’re in the middle of all the traffic, it’s almost like a funnel effect,” Magluilo said.“The economics side of it is prices of everything have come down so it’s much more affordable. We’re not a well-off county, and when people don’t have the money or insurance it’s hard to get help. Now we have families spending resources they don’t have. It becomes a vicious cycle,” Biechy said.“We have all these pills now. You get old, young and undereducated who are told ‘you need to do what your doctors said.’ All of a sudden within a few months after taking Percocet, you have to suddenly go cold turkey. People end up robbing their grandma’s cabinets,” Magluilo said.As a result, people become addicted.“The body stops producing dopamine. You can’t just stop using it. Burglaries used to be money, drugs, guns, jewelry. Now it’s medicine cabinet and pill bottles missing,” he said.Carbon County is rated 13th in the state for overdoses out of 67 counties, Biechy said.Funding issuesFunding was touched upon several times during the discussion from the now defunct DARE program to the cost of naloxone for the first responders.Most remember the early intervention program for elementary school years. The preventive DARE program has been lost over the years due to budget restraints and resource restrictions.“There were grant monies, once but the districts and states couldn’t fund it. We still have two officers who are DARE-certified but we haven’t done the math to find out what it would cost to use the program,” Biechy said.“It always becomes a resource issue. All three branches are short-staffed. We have to make a decision where we put our resources. It’s a Sixth Class county designation with a class four county designation in crime,” Harvilla said.“The crime is higher than the budget. The government only makes money one way, from taxes. They can cut back on programs or increase taxes,” he said.“Pharmacies companies charge close to $95 for Narcan,” said Biechy.“We can build a bigger jail or put people through programs. The jails are small and already overcrowded,” Biechy said.“Carbon probation is only so big and you have 300 people per probation officer. In the meantime we’re calling them saying, ‘We have your person.’ It becomes a whole vicious cycle,” he said.“Jails now have resources to rehabilitate these people who are addicted to hard drugs. When and if they are sentenced to jail, they can be provided help,” said Magluilo.The issue of keeping the community safe while helping those who are addicted has become complicated, leaving law enforcement in the middle.“There’s always a push and pull between the person versus the community. People need to know they’re going to be safe. But once you remove the person and put them in the prison setting, they are now hanging out with people who did the same thing. Then the transition back to the community is hard. They need a lot of help but the probation officers are overloaded so they’re putting out fires. It is a big resource problem. Drug courts are trying to eliminate that step and get them into recovery instead of jail,” Harvilla said. “Everyone is trying to find the sweet spot, but it comes down to funding.”