Heroin addiction “has become Buncombe County’s most deadly drug issue, Sheriff Van Duncan told the Council of Independent Business Owners during a breakfast meeting Aug. 5 at Chick-fil-A restaurant in North Asheville.

More than 60 people attended, including a mix of business leaders, government representatives, political candidates and local elected officials.

On a separate matter, CIBO, which is hosting an ongoing political debate series between local candidates, featured a lively square-off between Democratic state Rep. John Ager and Republican challenger Dr. Frank Moretz. (Buzzy Cannady served as moderator.)

Regarding the local heroin epidemic, Duncan said,  I really don’t have any good news to tell you about it... About three years ago, it (heroin arrests) started coming back. We thought it went out with the ‘70s. It came back with prescription opiates... 

“Heroin addiction is terrible … It’s really tough. Some people have addiction issues — and they will go from one drug to another, depending upon availability and price....

“We’ve seen more overdoses, we’ve seen more arrests and we’ve seen more people trafficking in it.”

The sheriff noted that heroin, available relatively cheaply due to the efficiency of Mexican drug cartels, has become the drug of choice for more and more people, with devastating results. Buncombe recorded 12 unintentional heroin poisoning deaths in 2014, up from three in 2013 and none in 2012.

“I know it’s impacted the sheriff’s office. We partner a lot with Mission Hospital. Right now, over 10 percent of children who are born at Mission are born with opiate addiction.

“From June 1 through yesterday (Aug. 4), the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office had responded to over 60 (drug) overdoses. I think it’d be pretty accurate to say that 80 percent of that was from heroin overdoes. That’s about one per day. We make arrests fairly frequently. “

After a pause, Duncan added, “It’s not something you’re going to arrest your way out of - — as long as the demand is out there, I’m afraid we’re going to continue dealing with this problem.

“We need to treat this addiction as a disease. We need to keep enforcement up. So the threat of law enforcement and arrest is not that big of a deterrent “ to drug addicts.

“We see people using heroin cut with fentanyl. Asheville was one of the bigger locations... Acetylfentanyl is extremely dangerous. When someone injects it, they don’t know if it’ll kill them or not.”

Rhetorically, Duncan asked, “What are we doing at the sheriff’s office with it?”

“In Barnardsville, we have started taking” counselors from other agencies trained in dealing with drug addicts “into those communities with us, so when someone has a family member with that addiction,” they can help.

“When you think of heroin addict, it’s all over the board — from early 20s into the 50s. It’s not just the street-person stereotype.”

Duncan added, “We’ve had that addiction problem for a long time in this country — and now that we have people dying from it, it’s getting attention.” He then reiterated, “We’re working more and more with heroin addicts.”

A CIBO attendee asked, “Is there a particular part of the county where this is particularly prevalent?”

“No we see it everywhere,” Duncan replied. “And there’s no particular socio-economic class.”

Another man asked, “What can we do to help with this problem?”

“A lot of them (the addicts) were high-producing kids,” the sheriff answered. “So anything we can do to try to have those resources in place to try to pull them out of that addiction probably helps.”

A man then asked, “What about education in the high schools? I think the more people know about and are warned about it, they might stay away from it.”

Agreeing, Duncan said, “There’s a new DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education)program... There was some speculation about how effective the old DARE program was. The SROs (school resource officers) do a phenomenal job in the high schools....”

In concluding the question-and-answer session, Duncan asserted, “There is good news in the county, but there isn’t good news with the heroin problem.”

Getting in the final word, CIBO member Mac Swicegood thanked the sheriff “for your efforts on heroin addiction enforcement.”

In the candidates debate that followed, Ager began by noting that “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed representing my community in Buncombe County. I’m energized by it. I’m getting to know what’s going on in Raleigh.”

Moretz opened by asserting, “I’m concerned about what we’re getting in Raleigh. We need strong, effective representation — and I think I can do that.” He also emphased that “I’m a veteran” of the armed services.

“As an elected rep, what can you do to move the I-26 issue along?” Cannady, the moderator, reading from questions pre-submitted by CIBO members. 

“First, it has to be a bipartisan thing,” Moretz replied. “I think I can work with both parties to encourage both parties to get together to get this done. This is a federal issue as well as a state issue. I’d do all in my power to get this done.”

Meanwhile, Ager replied, “This (I-26 improvements) is a game-changer issue for Western North Carolina. At this point, its a matter of money. If we can generate more funds for infrastructure, that would move that project up” on the state’s priority list. “I think I can help with that.”

“What area has the most waste in government?” Cannady asked.

“Boy, that’s a curveball,” Ager answered. “I really believe that, at this point in time, there’s not that much waste. We’ve been cutting state government back. I don’t think there’s waste in education. … Another big area has been Medicaid — we’ve been trimming our Medicaid expenses. We’re on the right track. I can’t think of anywhere” to cut.

Moretz replied, “Medicaid is a good place to start.... There’s still some waste and fraud and abuse in Medicaid.” In a reference to himself, he added, “I also think you need a physician in Raleigh to watch over this.”