New trends in drug use are emerging in northern lower Michigan communities, and now police are working to build awareness about the evolving problem.
Corey Hebner is a Community Service Trooper for the Michigan State Police. He said building awareness of drug prevalence in rural communities is an easy way to engage a community.
“We’re seeing more and more heroin in rural areas. Unfortunately because heroin is a lot cheaper than trying to find a street drug prescription based pain killer. That's going to continue”.
Hebner said counties in northern lower Michigan prescribe more opioids per capita than the rest of the state, and that leads to a shift in drug use.
“What we’re seeing is somebody that gets in a car accident is prescribed an opioid based pain killer and then when they get cut off by their doctor because their doctor sees that they're using too much, they just go right to street drug heroin because they can't find that prescription or that prescription is twice as expensive”.
Hebner will be presenting information about rural drug trends July 26 and 27.
7:00 - 8:00 PM, Wednesday, July 26
Mackinaw Area Public Library Community Room
528 W. Central Ave., Mackinaw City
7:00 - 8:00 PM, Thursday, July 27
Pellston Branch Library
125 N. Milton St., Pellston