Sheriff's office working to combat heroin plaguing St. Johns County

St. Johns County has seen in an increase in heroin-related deaths and is working to combat the issue by more closely tracking heroin incidents and going after dealers.

Two distributors were arrested in June, according to St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office Sheriff David Shoar.

He said the county has a drug plague on its hands.

“I never thought I'd see heroin again in my career,” Shoar said.

He said deputies are seeing heroine with a purity level of about 30 percent.

“What’s amazing is we’re still seeing overdose deaths with 30 percent purity,” Shoar said.

Duval County has also seen an increase in heroin-related deaths.

According to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, there were 17 deaths due to heroin or involving heroin in 2014.

In 2015, that number jumped to 45, which was a 265 percent increase.

Sheriff Shoar said the increase in St. Johns County is the result of shutting down pill mills.

“Now you've got a 22-year-old who’s got an addiction problem - not a dependency problem but an addiction problem,” Shoar said. “They're going to go find what they can to make them feel good again and unfortunately that's heroin.”

St Johns County is now specifically tracking heroin incidents and they're going after the dealers.

Shoar said it will take help from the community because arrests alone won't stop the problem.

“It's going to be a tough challenge, it's going to drain resources,” Shoar said. “We're going to have to put resources on it. But it's a life or death situation so it's not a hard decision to make.”

The Sheriff told Action News Jax he's also working to get his deputies equipped with Naxolone, a nasal spray that be used to try and reverse the effects of an overdose.

Cox Media Group