It wasn’t breaking news that heroin and its related drugs were ravaging communities across Ohio, but the revelation that the state led the nation in opioid overdose deaths in 2014 put the problem into perspective. Ohio is the seventh largest state, but had more overdose deaths in 2014 than California, the largest state and the […]

Heroin kills.  It might as well be the slogan for Ottawa County’s drug problem these last few years. “It’s everywhere now,” said Carl Rider, an agent with the Ottawa County Drug Task Force. “This isn’t an inner-city issue anymore.” The county’s drug task force has dealt with a consistent and disturbing amount of heroin since 2011. […]

A lesser known drug threat poses a significant risk to everyone coming in contact with heroin. Fentanyl, a powerful opioid that looks almost exactly like heroin, can be absorbed through the skin, according to a news release. The drug is commonly found during drug buys and contributes to numerous overdose deaths annually. It’s often mixed in with, […]

Seven men and four women face drug-related charges after a roundup by the Ottawa County Drug Task Force last weekend. According to Ottawa County Prosecutor Mark Mulligan, the roundup of those accused of drug-related offenses culminated in 11 people being arrested since Friday. Mulligan said the charges resulted from a three-month operation by the Drug Task Force, during […]

It’s everywhere. That was the consensus on heroin Tuesday afternoon during a town hall meeting in Independence hosted by radio station WTAM-1100’s Mike Trivisonno. “It’s in every suburb, it’s in every city, it’s everywhere,” he said. Our interest in the discussion was in narcotics detective Gregg Mehling of the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office, who gave […]