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BELPRE – Two drugs hitting the Mid-Ohio Valley and what to look for to identify them was the topic of a meeting Sunday at The Celebration Center in Belpre.
Rick Woodyard, director of the Wood County Central Telecommunications Center, is a former Wood County Sheriff’s Deputy and former unit commander of the Parkersburg Narcotics Task Force. He spoke to a large crowd in the church sanctuary.
Woodyard said in his years he has seen the drug traffic to the Mid-Ohio Valley grow from the beginning of methamphetamine, its conclusion seven years ago and its return. He added the area is also being hit with heroin at this time.
Those making and using methamphetamine are the most dangerous to deal with, because of the side effects that include insomnia, aggressiveness, paranoia and hallucinations, he said.
“They are very dangerous people,” Woodyard said. “Unlike other drugs these people will binge for three to 15 days; stay high that long. A high from some drugs will last hours but methamphetamine can last for weeks.
“They can become very violent without notice or provocation.”
Woodyard said if anyone comes across what they suspect could be methamphetamine to not touch and not to move anything if they come across a possible lab. Some things to look for are unusual odors, jars or cans with duct or electrical tape on them, drug recipes or chemistry books or containers of liquids with multiple layers.
Woodyard said law enforcement should be called since they are trained to handle the situation and the materials, which can be dangerous and volatile.
More recently the one pot method for making the drug has gained prominence. It uses many of the same ingredients but takes about 20 minutes to make. He said it is also called the Nazi Method.
“It was designed in Nazi Germany during World War II to keep the troops up, to allow them to continue to fight,” he said. “That’s where this method was originally derived from.”
Another drug being seen locally is heroin.
“Wood County has lost 30 people to heroin overdoses in the last year,” Woodyard said. “This is not something to be proud of, but West Virginia leads the country in heroin overdoses and Wood County leads the state of West Virginia.
“Heroin has taken us by storm; it’s cheap and it’s easy to get.”
Woodyard said the influx of the drug from is from Detroit, Chicago, Marion, Ohio, and Columbus. During the past summer the city of Parkersburg came up with $28,000 in cash to buy the drugs, he said.
“When you start talking tier one drug dealers, you have to buy thousands of dollars worth off them. It’s rare (the money) to get that back but they put the cash because we want those cats out of here.”
Woodyard said heroin is mixed with other substances that makes it more potent to the point where one injection can kill.
“That’s what happening to some of our young,” he said. “It’s stopping them in their tracks.”
Because of the large number of drugs being moved, Woodyard said law enforcement is at war.
“It’s all about the money to them,” he said of dealers. “We’ve been told it’s nothing but a business for them.”
Woodyard said anyone who sees something they suspect to be drug related, they can tip to the police. He said local law enforcement is looking at systems that will allow people to text tips to authorities.
“When they text the info, it goes to Canada,” he said. “It’s scrubbed, given a number and it is resent from Canada to local police. Police can then have a real-time two-way text conversation. We are looking at this to get the young folks engaged in sending in tips. All the person at the other end knows is you are number 55911, and that’s it.”
Woodyard said the reason the text goes to Canada is because if it stayed in the United States, identifying information could be subpoenaed. Since it leaves the country, it returns with nothing to track the source.
Parkersburg businessmen Larry Fought said he and Robert Wright are sponsoring Woodyard to make presentations like that presented Sunday in Belpre. He said it is important to get the information out to the public.
“We are living in time of an extreme epidemic,” he said. “It’s not just from meth but it’s from the dealers, when they buy heroin their goal is to make money, they run it as a business.
“They don’t care about who they will hurt,” Fought said. “Children are the ones they look for.”