BURLINGTON, KY (FOX19) -
A new war on drugs is with an old enemy for law enforcement in Kentucky and Ohio.
Kentucky officials have cracked down on prescription pain medication abuse by tracking pills and clogging up a pipeline that had roots in Florida.
As those efforts began paying off and pills weren't as easily had, the street price went up. This left drug addicts looking for a lower cost alternative: Namely, heroin.
"Its deadly," said Boone County Sheriff's Office spokesman, Tom Scheben. "We've noticed in the last five years, maybe a spike in the last three years, that there's been a definite increase in the heroin use."
This after cracking down on abuse of prescription pain medications.
"Those people that were hooked on Oxycontins and Oxycodones, painkillers, are now switching over to heroin because it's cheaper, and it's a lot easier to get," said Scheben.
For law enforcement agencies like the Boone County Sheriff's Office, the war on drugs continues and they admit the battle may never be over.
"It's discouraging, in that, we realize we're always going to have a drug problem. It just changes flavors," said Scheben.
Authorities say the heroin is imported to the United States from Mexico and Central America.
It is first going to Illinois and Michigan before entering Ohio and migrating across the river into Kentucky.
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