Md. Joins Task Force To Tackle Heroin Crisis
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Maryland's growing heroin epidemic has the state's attorney general teaming with neighboring states to tackle heroin trafficking.
Derek Valcourt explains how a heroin task force is expected to help Maryland.
Maryland is losing more than one person a day to heroin overdoses; it's a crisis Maryland leaders say we can't afford to ignore.
Maryland's location along the busy 95 corridor with easy access to east coast trains has helped make Baltimore a destination city for heroin traffickers. That's why Attorney General Brian Frosh says Maryland will now team with nearby states as part of heroin task force to stem the flow of the highly addictive drug.
"More heroin comes to Maryland from New York and New Jersey than from any other area in the world," said Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh.
So much heroin--overdose deaths now repeatedly touch every county in the state with 450 deaths last year alone, a 50% increase since 2010. One of those deaths, 19-year-old Hannah McLocklin--her parents spoke with Jessica Kartajlia as part of a WJZ investigation.
"I called her name shook her she didn't respond,no parent should ever have to do that," said Hannah's mother.
For many addicts, prescription painkiller use often a gateway to cheaper and more powerful heroin abuse.
"It used to be an urban problem, then it became a suburban problem now it's even in the rural areas," said Governor Larry Hogan.
Governor Larry Hogan telling WJZ fighting heroin is a major priority for his administration.
"Maryland has one of the worse heroin problems in the United States," Hogan said.
Law enforcement officials say taking part in the heroin task force will allow a new level of immediate intelligence sharing to stop drug traffickers throughout the northeast.
"Their networks don't stop at the Delaware Bridge, at the borders and neither should ours," said Thiru Vignarajah, Deputy Attorney General.
According to White House drug trafficking data, 22 percent of the heroin seized in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area last year originated in New York and New Jersey.
Maryland joins New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Maine as part of the Northeast Mid-Atlantic Heroin Task Force.
