Manatee Tiger Bay Club meeting reveals frightening heroin statistics

BRADENTON -- It was a plague of numbers about heroin in Manatee County at the Tiger Bay Club meeting Thursday afternoon:

Manatee County Emergency Medical Services has administered 1,008 doses of narcan, a heroin overdose antidote, in Manatee County so far in 2015.

The number of overdoses in July was 1,554 percent higher than in July 2014 in Manatee County.

The Manatee County Sheriff's Office has confiscated 620 grams of heroin so far in 2015, valued at about $62,000.

In the 1970s and 1980s, heroin was only about 10 percent pure. The supply seen in Manatee County recently is between 40 and 60 percent pure.

Fentanyl, the opioid frequently cut into the heroin supply in Manatee, causing frequent overdoses, can be 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin.

The demand for heroin in the United States represents a $10 billion industry.

About 5,000 trucks cross the U.S.-Mexico border every day, and only 5 percent are checked.

About 67 percent of overdose victims in Manatee County are men, and 90 percent are white.

"The numbers are really overwhelming," said Manatee County EMS Chief Steve Krivjanik.

The Tiger Bay Club invited four panel members to speak Thursday on the heroin epidemic in Manatee County: Capt. Todd Shear of the Manatee County Sheriff's Office; Melissa Larkin-Skinner, chief clinical officer of Centerstone Florida;

Brandilyn Karnehm, a recovering opioid addict; and Krivjanik.

Each shared their particular experience with a group of more than 100 people, about twice the size of a normal Tiger Bay meeting, gathered in the Kiwanis Hall at the Manatee Performing Arts Center. The meeting was moved from its usual spot at Pier 22 to accommodate a bigger crowd.

Shear said though it was an important issue to the Sheriff's Office, he was limited in what he could talk about because deputies didn't want to clue drug traffickers in to the law enforcement process.

"It's our mission to focus on the traffickers, and not the users," Shear said. "It's frustrating because I'd like to tell you a lot more, but I can't."

Shear said every deputy has gone through extensive training on drug issues, including focused portions on the area's heroin and fentanyl problem.

The Sheriff's Office is also focusing on a state law that allows them to charge drug traffickers with first-degree murder if they can prove drugs sold by the trafficker caused an overdose death.

Larkin-Skinner illustrated the complications of addiction to the group, saying it was a misconception that addicts are somehow stupid or evil for their choices.

Most of them, she said, are people who began using drugs to escape from unpleasant parts of their lives and soon became addicted.

"You lose your free will," Larkin-Skinner said. "When a 10-year-old is asked what they want to be when they grow up, they never say they want to be an addict."

She called on people to ask local, state and federal lawmakers to increase funding for treatment centers, because places such as Centerstone cannot handle the number of addicts in the community who need help. She has said that Centerstone has a constant waiting list of people seeking treatment.

"The demand is far outpacing the available resources," she said.

Krivjanik said repeat overdoses are a large problem for his department. Just in July, he said EMS had 35 repeat overdose victims. And the problem is in every part of the county, not affecting just one economic class. Mainly, it hits white males between the ages of 20 and 40, but they've seen all races, both genders, and people as young as 17 and as old as 88.

"You can't hide from it," Krivjanik said. "Anna Maria Island, Lakewood Ranch, Myakka, it doesn't matter. We have them (overdoses) everywhere."

Karnehm spoke last, offering a more personal look into her own past drug history.

She talked about getting arrested numerous times as she stole to try to fund her drug habit, being homeless and living out on the street, and the long path to getting clean. She has now been sober for more than two years.

"The thing that helped me was tough love," Karnehm said to a member who asked what they should say to other drug addicts to help them get clean. "Once my parents and everybody around me made it so hard for me to use -- instead of enabling me by giving me a place to stay and use there, or letting me take advantage of them -- once they kicked me out and I had no other options, and it was just tough, I didn't want to do it anymore."

But Karnehm also said convincing an addict that doesn't want help to get clean is incredibly difficult, and that she has found the best way is to lead by example.

"I've learned that they (addicts) will get me high before I can get them clean," Karnehm said.

Many members of Tiger Bay relayed stories or just mentioned their own loved ones who struggled with drug addiction. The crowd gave Karnehm a standing ovation after hearing her story -- one that offered hope for those struggling to help their own family members or friends.

Kate Irby, Herald online/political reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7055. You can follow her on Twitter @KateIrby

This story was originally published September 4, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Manatee Tiger Bay Club meeting reveals frightening heroin statistics ."