Officers describe the horror of heroin

As Palm Beach Sheriff ’s Capt. Eric Coleman scoured through the approximately 1,300 overdose reports that deputies responded to in 2016, he learned a 19-year-old named Joey was the youngest person to die.

Coleman told an audience Wednesday at the Alliance of Delray Residential Associations meeting that he spoke with Joey’s dad, who said his son had first overdosed in New York, then traveled to South Florida for treatment in October.

But after the dad took a flight to South Florida to take his son back home, he found Joey dead in a hotel room.

It’s the type of story Coleman says he hears often in Palm Beach County, as heroin overdoses ravage the area.

The meeting at the South County Civic Center included a panel discussion by local law enforcement, addressing the issues of heroin overdoses, unscrupulous sober home operators and human trafficking.

State Attorney Dave Aronberg said the heroin today is not only more accessible but much more deadly because it is being mixed with fentanyl and carfentanil, a sedative for large animals such as elephants.

“These are cheap, powerful painkillers that came in from China, that have flooded the market and users don’t know that the heroin that they’re using contains this stuff. It gives them a big high, it’s often much cheaper and it often kills them,” Aronberg said.

He said the county sees more than 20 overdoses a day and just over one death a day.

Aronberg said sober homes owned by “unscrupulous individuals” are causing an increase in overdoses.

“That’s who we’re going after with our task force. That’s what we’re trying to clean up. These are the arrests we’re making,” Aronberg said. “We are the most aggressive county rooting out abuse in the treatment industry and the sober home industry.”

Some sober homes offer free plane tickets to Florida, scooters, cigarettes and other perks, all of which is illegal, Aronberg said.

Aronberg said that as Palm Beach County tries to crack down on unscrupulous sober homes, the problem is spreading to other areas across the state.

Coleman has been the captain of the sheriff ’s narcotics division for the past six years and said he feels like he’s playing a constant game of whack-a-mole.

He said the heroin problem is much worse than the heroin epidemic of the 1970s, due to the mix of fentanyl and carfentanil.

In 2016, the Sheriff ’s Office responded to 1,300 overdoses, of which 242 people died, Coleman said. He said 970 of the overdose cases involved people under 35 years old.

He recalls certain cases: mothers