CHARLESTON, W.Va.–An update on the ten-month-old HEAT task force was provided to the Kanawha County Commission at its Tuesday night meeting.
The initiative, which stands for Heroin Eradication Associated Taskforce, aims to try to put a stop to West Virginia’s heroin crisis and the violence associated with its use by getting the drug off streets. The program features an anonymous tip line to hopefully point police in the right direction. U.S. Federal Prosecutor Booth Goodwin said the problem isn’t one they can “arrest their way out of.”
“We’re focused not only on the supply side and limiting the supply of heroin on the streets, but also on reducing the demand for the drug in the home and in the streets across the state. And we’ve got to do that.”
Goodwin said the tip line would give officers the information they need to prosecute cases and get heroin off the streets. HEAT Committee Chairman Terry Sayre agreed.
“Hopefully by putting out the heroin tip line where people can call in anonymously it will provide police officers with the needed information to prosecute cases and make arrests,” Sayre said.
At the meeting, commission President Kent Carper called the heroin problem in West Virginia “a crisis”. Sayre said that because heroin is physically addictive as well as mentally, it also leads to many crimes committed by addicts to get their next fix.
“The murders, the break-ins, the robberies, all that is related to the heroin problem,” he said.
The Kanawha County Commission approved $250,000 to create the taskforce last June.