Drugs...In Plattsburgh?

Injected and other hard-drugs are no longer big-city problems

Story by Todd Costello
Photos provided by Drug Enforcement Administration

When somebody thinks of Plattsburgh, they may think of a small, quaint, peaceful little city in the Adirondacks. While this image is a nice view of the city, perhaps one should start thinking of illegal distribution of narcotics, prescription pills, and opiates.

“It's not just weed and cocaine, it's heroin, crack and other drugs that can be injected,” Lieutenant Patrick Rascoe said about the drug problems in the town of Plattsburgh.

Last year, heroin use was the cause of several deaths and a hot topic amongst the local authority.

“We really knocked the crap out of the heroin problem.”

Amongst the obvious health risks involved in injecting heroin into your body, another problem police faced was the dosage some addicts were taking. The method suppliers used to package their “goods” was by stamping it. The stamps are typically emblems and different suppliers sell different grades. When a user switches grades, their bodies may not be able to handle the dosage. So, if a man or woman was injecting heroin with a stamp of a skull, he or she doesn't know exactly what they're taking and associates the skull with what he can handle. The only way they know what to expect with a different supplier is trial and error. If they can't handle the dose, the drug can stop their heart.

With hard work put in by the Adirondack Drug Task (ADT), which is comprised of the Plattsburgh P.D., DEA, New York State Police, Clinton County sheriffs, U.S. Border Control, the hard-drug problems have disappeared almost completely.

“We really knocked the crap out of the heroin problem,” Rascoe said. “It became so difficult to get it (heroin), many users got clean or switched to a different drug.”

Prescription pills and other crimes

The “new” drug that is becoming a big problem to control is prescription drugs. The problem with controlling what Rascoe calls the “under-the-counter” drugs is that they're easy to get and some people can have them legally, which makes it hard to investigate.

For the user, prescription drugs are easy to take, are measured out and, in most cases, come in pill form. They know exactly how much to take and what each amount does to their body.

Along with prescription drugs, cocaine and marijuana are still problems that are being addressed this year by the ADT.

Some of you would think that the local Plattsburgh State University College students would have some correlation relating to drug crimes in the city. This is not the case. “There are very few drug-related crimes with the students,” said Chief of PSUC Police Department Arlene Sabo. Aside from one cocaine bust a few years ago, the few charges that are present amongst students are petty possession charges of marijuana.

“It became so difficult to get it (heroin), many users got clean or switched to a different drug.”

Cocaine is a bigger problem, and crime related. The more addictive the drug, the more likely it is that a user will commit a crime to pay for their habit, Rascoe explained.

Although sources couldn't comment on exactly what is being done to stop the circulation of drugs, rest assured that 10 to 12 members of the ADT are on the case.

Laws that are in place now, really make the distribution of certain drugs a serious issue. For those suppliers dealing narcotics, they will find themselves charged with a felony. More specifically, in a class of felony that is right beneath murder and the killing of an officer.

Were you aware about the rise of prescription and other drug abuse in Plattsburgh?

Rockefeller Drug Laws

These set of laws for New York State are some of the harshest drug-related sentencing laws in the U.S. Under this act, which was placed into effect in 1973, there are mandatory sentencings judges must follow.

Originally, these laws were set up to put the big-time drug lords behind bars, but haven't necessarily succeeded in that sense. Most lock-ups are low-risk distributors or possession charges for personal use.

Under these laws, possession of two ounces for certain drugs is considered a Class A felony and result in 15 years to life in prison. A lot of the Rockefeller Drug Laws have shown to imprison a high proportion of minorities. In general, prison populations, in 2003 to '04, are directly affected and 38 percent of the population is there for drug-related felonies.