Drug-Related Crime

Drug-related violent and property crime often occurs within the HIDTA region as distributors protect their distribution operations, and abusers seek funds to sustain their addictions. Cocaine, heroin, and marijuana distributors often commit violent crimes including assault and homicide to maintain control of local drug markets. Cocaine, heroin, and diverted pharmaceutical abusers often commit crimes such as retail fraud, burglary, robbery, and theft to obtain drugs or money to purchase drugs. Methamphetamine producers, often Caucasians, steal precursor chemicals, while methamphetamine abusers commit larceny, identity theft, and theft from their parents and/or grandparents to acquire money to purchase the drug. Moreover, some methamphetamine abusers steal credit card applications from mailboxes, complete them with stolen personal information, obtain fraudulent credit cards, and use the credit cards to secure drug funds.

Violence among crack distributors is increasing, particularly in the Flint area, as aspiring, younger crack distributors engage in violent drug and monetary thefts from established dealers. Previously, aspiring distributors worked for established drug distributors as runners or lookouts, eventually becoming distributors themselves. However, many young distributors are now unwilling to "work their way up, "resorting instead to theft and violence to advance their own drug operations. Many young dealers steal drugs from one another; some associate with other drug dealers and study their operations to learn when the dealers will have a large amount of money or drugs, subsequently robbing them. Violent, drug-related "rip-offs" also take place, typically when an established, higher-level dealer purports to have drugs available for sale and, rather than delivering the drugs in exchange for cash from a lower-level dealer, steals the money. Some individuals, fearing recognition and retaliation, murder the drug dealers that they rob. This trend of violence and theft is likely to result in increased retaliatory violence against such drug dealers  in the near term.

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Abuse

Marijuana is the most widely available and abused illicit drug in the Michigan HIDTA region; however, the distribution and abuse of cocaine are the most significant drug-related concerns to law enforcement officials because of cocaine's widespread availability, low cost, highly addictive nature, and association with violence. Crack cocaine is more prevalent in urban areas, where it is abused by African American users; powder cocaine is more prevalent in suburban areas, where it is generally abused by Caucasian and Hispanic users.

Heroin abuse is increasing among young suburban and rural Caucasians, particularly women, as more individuals appear to be engaging in casual use by snorting the drug. In Flint suburban Caucasian abusers travel to the city to purchase quantities that will last 3 to 4 days. Some heroin initiates previously abused prescription narcotics such as OxyContin and switched to heroin after having difficulty obtaining the pharmaceuticals. Many heroin abusers who initiated use of the drug through inhalation or after using prescription narcotics have progressed to intravenous heroin abuse after becoming addicted to the drug. However, some newer abusers have been intimidated by the outbreak of overdoses and deaths associated with heroin/fentanyl combinations and are more cautious when purchasing heroin. SA heroin is the most commonly abused type of heroin in the area, but Southwest Asian heroin, Mexican brown powder and black tar heroin and, occasionally, SEA heroin are abused as well. Mexican heroin is becoming increasingly prevalent in the Grand Rapids area.

Methamphetamine abuse is a concern, particularly in the western HIDTA counties, where the highest levels of abuse occur. Methamphetamine is generally smoked and snorted by Caucasian and Hispanic male abusers, who also produce the drug locally.

Rising MDMA availability in the region has resulted in an increase in the drug's popularity among high school and college students. Large "rave-style" gatherings previously associated with MDMA are rare; however, smaller parties continue to occur within the HIDTA region. Most of MDMA available in the HIDTA region originates in Canada and often contains some methamphetamine.

Diverted pharmaceuticals, particularly fentanyl, hydrocodone, methadone, OxyContin, Vicodin, and Xanax, are obtained by abusers in the HIDTA region through various means, including doctor-shopping, theft, forged prescriptions, copied or scanned prescriptions, and unscrupulous physicians. Some abusers communicate on the Internet to obtain pharmaceuticals. Others converse in doctors' waiting rooms to identify doctors who write illegal prescriptions; some abusers will provide a doctor's name to other abusers for $100. Some doctors are increasingly prescribing methadone, sometimes as a replacement for OxyContin to deter law enforcement scrutiny and other times as a result of pressure from drug companies to prescribe methadone for conditions other than opiate addiction. Diverted methadone is a particular concern for public health officials in the region; since the effects of the drug occur at a slower rate than those of other narcotics, abusers sometimes increase the dosage in order to feel the effects more quickly, often leading to an overdose. Diverted Vicodin is available in the HIDTA region at "pill houses" in small amounts as well as in large quantities of 30,000 to 40,000 dosage units.

Fentanyl has become a major concern for law enforcement and public health officials in the HIDTA region after a May 2006 outbreak of fatal and nonfatal overdoses related to clandestinely produced fentanyl mixed with heroin or cocaine. Fentanyl is available in the region as clandestinely produced powder and in prescription patches, lozenge suckers, tablets, and liquid injections. At least 212 fentanyl-related overdose deaths have occurred in the Detroit area since August 2005. Media attention regarding fentanyl-related overdoses has intimidated some drug abusers but caused some to seek out the drug. However, some abusers unwittingly use heroin/fentanyl combinations or cocaine/fentanyl combinations because they are marketed to them as a single drug.

High school and college age students abuse a variety of drugs, including marijuana, heroin, and pharmaceutical drugs. "Pharming parties," typically held at residences, are events at which adolescents and young adults bring a variety of drugs that they have been able to obtain, most often pharmaceuticals. The drugs are placed into a large bowl and mixed. Thereafter, attendees indiscriminately take several drugs from the bowl and simultaneously ingest them. Young abusers in the region also experiment with various other drugs, including morning glory seeds and dextromethorphan (the abuse of which is known as robotripping⁴). Additionally, young abusers in Detroit are increasingly experimenting with nitrous oxide that is supplied to them by Russian criminal groups.

End Note

4. Robotripping is a street term used to describe the effects produced by the abuse of Robitussin, which contains dextromethorphan.

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