Before we start slapping Metro real hard on the back for a drug interdiction job well done, let me just say that heroin users and dealers are some of the easiest to bust.
Why, you may ask?
Well, all that really has to be done is to find someone who's strung out on it, bust em for something that will put them in jail for a couple of days, and then either promise them some sort of relief while they're in the middle of their withdrawals or follow the sick junkie from the jailhouse upon release because the first place he/she is going is to his/her connection.
From there it's just a matter of surveillance and patience because the nature of the addiction does most of the rest for the police.
I don't want to denigrate the efforts of our local pohleese here and 46 Zs of Chiva ain't nuthin to sneeze at, but neither do I want to over-congratulate them for a job that is easier to accomplish than they might be leading us to believe.
Now if there is any downside to busting heroin dealers it is that they've been hooking up with the dealers who were slinging that dope before they were popped in this raid, they're going to be sicker - and more desperate - than they've probably ever been before.
Herein lies the problem with heroin (and most other opiates, although to a lesser extent) - when folks lose their connects, they get sick - real sick - and contrary to what you might have been told or heard about narcotics withdrawals, it ain't nuthin like "the flu."
At the onset of withdrawals, folks are prone to doing things they wouldn't ordinarily do, like sticking up a pharmacy, robbing little old ladies for their pills, breaking into houses to rummage through medicine cabinets, that kind of stupid shit.
The good news of course is that this behavior only lasts until they become so sick they can't move any more. The bad news is that a single junkie can do some serious damage on his/her way to a fix while sick.
This is why of all the drugs out there, opiates are the only ones that society has realized are so hard to kick that we've set up a way for users to get their "fix" without resorting to heroin/opiate use and the crime that often accompanies procuring it.
I suspect the Middle Tennessee Treatment Center will see a spike in patients over the next few days as a result of this bust; that is, if folks are smart enough to know the methadone clinic exists here in Nashville....
Most of you who read this blog with any regularity know that I've been a methadone maintenance patient for almost ten years now. It's why I guess I can speak with a bit of authority about heroin, since I spent most of my adult life addicted to opiates, including a long stint with heroin and I doubt I'll ever be able to get completely off Methadone.
There is good research available that essentially argues that folks who chronically abuse narcotics over many years or decades often destroy their body's ability to produce enough of the naturally occurring endorphins on its own to stave off the jittery, anxiety-inducing, "running-legs" heebie jeebies that accompany the initial stages of withdrawals.
We narcotics abusers can usually get past the really bad part of the "sick" after a couple of weeks, but the lingering effects may never go away. There is a pioneering heroin/opiate researcher on the West Coast who I believe runs a clinic in the Haight Ashbury area and I cannot recall the man's name offhand, but I know his research is what I'm paraphrasing /summarizing for us dummies here. He is the one who argues that for those of us who cannot get past these final withdrawal symptoms, methadone and the newer treatment protocols may be the only answer until brain chemistry science advances further. A good place to begin research on heroin/opiate addiction is the Methadone Watchdog, and Erowid's Vaults, if you're interested...
Police: Sting Crippled Area's Largest Heroin Ring Posted: June 11, 2008 08:40 PM
Updated: June 11, 2008 10:02 PM
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Metro police said they've made one of the largest heroin busts in Nashville's history.
It happened Tuesday after a month-long undercover investigation.
Police charged four people with dealing heroin and 15 people for buying the highly addictive drug.
Police said this was a well-organized operation in which car parts were used to smuggle heroin from Mexico to Middle Tennessee.
Police said the cans of auto grease are a cover. Investigators said $3,000 of brown tar heroin was inside each tube.
"This is a tremendous example of how our police department fights narcotics in every possible way," said Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas.
On Tuesday, police arrested 19 people in one of Nashville's biggest heroin drug busts. Fifteen were charged with buying.
Four people were arrested for running what's called a drug dispatch operation out of a home on Cedarcreek Trail in South Nashville.
"A person who wanted to buy heroin would call a number that rang to a home in South Nashville," said Don Aaron, Metro police spokesman.
An undercover officer said the dealers packaged the heroin in tiny balloons and arranged for a place to deliver the drug.
"And they felt more comfortable meeting the clients at their residence, parking lots, different places in and around the Nashville area, preferably Bellevue, Charlotte Pike, White Bridge Road. Areas like that," the detective said.
Police seized $180,000 worth of heroin and nearly $40,000 in cash. They also claim to have crippled the area's largest heroin ring.
Serpas said the arrests and seizure represent his department's "commitment to continuously fight (drugs) on every street corner, in every way we can."
Police said the bust will take about 90 percent of heroin off of Nashville streets. They also said in the past heroin was not a common drug in Middle Tennessee, but this case is evidence that the drug is making a comeback.
Investigators are still working this case and anticipate more arrests.
Click here for information about the arrestees.
