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Ohio Authorities Struggle to Combat Surge in Heroin Cases

By Peter Ambrose
June 18, 2010 Updated May 21, 2008 at 6:57 AM EDT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The government's top anti-drug agent for Ohio says authorities are barely keeping up with a surge in the amount of heroin flowing into the Columbus area.

Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Anthony Marotta
says the amount of heroin being seized in central Ohio reminds him
of the levels in Miami in the 1980s.

Marotta also says that while Columbus has the state's biggest
heroin problem, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo are also
struggling with the drug.

The 23-year veteran of the DEA said today it will take a combination of enforcement and early education to stop the problem.

The state says the number of Ohioans in publicly funded heroin
treatment programs has tripled to almost 10,000 individuals in a decade.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)



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