CRITICAL ISSUES IN POLICING SERIES New Challenges for Police: A Heroin Epidemic and Changing Attitudes Toward Marijuana Page intentionally blank CRITICAL ISSUES IN POLICING SERIES New Challenges for Police: A Heroin Epidemic and Changing Attitudes Toward Marijuana August 2014 This publication was supported by the Motorola Solutions Foundation. The points of view expressed herein are the authors’ and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Motorola Solutions Foundation or individual Police Executive Research Forum members. Police Executive Research Forum, Washington, D.C. 20036 Copyright 2014 by Police Executive Research Forum All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-934485-27-9 Cover and text page design by Dave Williams. Cover photos, bottom row, are courtesty of Cannabis Culture/Foter/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), MaplessInSeattle/Foter/Creative Commons Attribution- NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0), and cannabisdestiny/Foter/Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0). Photos on text pages by James McGinty. Contents Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction, by Chuck Wexler ....................................................................................... 2 Police Chiefs and Federal Leaders Focus on the Heroin Epidemic ................................. 5 Heroin: Te Nature and Extent of the Problem.......................................................................................................5 Sidebar – PERF Survey Confrms: Heroin Is an Increasing Concern in Many Locations ...........................................................................................................8 Sidebar – Attorney General Eric Holder: Tanks to PERF for Bringing Us Together To Address the Heroin Epidemic ..........................................................................................................................................16 Strategies for Reducing Heroin Use and Overdoses .............................................................................................18 Sidebar – Police Ofcers Administering Medication Tat Stops Heroin Overdoses .........................................................19 Sidebar – Holly Springs, GA Lieutenant Tanya Smith: My Daughter Passed Away Last Year Afer Struggling with Heroin Addiction ..............................................................................................................................21 Sidebar – Some Police and Sherifs’ Agencies Directly Ofer Treatment to Low-Level Ofenders ....................................24 Sidebar – Harm Reduction Approach: LEAD Case Managers “Meet Teir Clients Where Tey Are At” .............................................................................................................................26 Sidebar – Principles of Drug Abuse Treatment for Criminal Justice Populations ............................................................28 Defning the Role of Local Police in Responding to the Heroin Crisis ..............................................................31 Marijuana Legalization in Colorado and Washington State, and the U.S. Justice Department’s Response .................................................................. 34 Introduction ...............................................................................................................................................................34 Colorado and Washington State Perspectives .......................................................................................................36 Denver Chief R.C. White: Marijuana Legalization Has Brought Many Issues For the Police to Handle .......................................................................................................................................................36 Seattle Interim Chief Jim Pugel: Our Legislature Is Watching the Issues We’ve Had With Medical Marijuana, and the Problems in Colorado ...............................................................................41 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 46 About PERF ................................................................................................................................................ 49 About the Motorola Solutions Foundation ............................................................................................ 51 Appendix: Participants at the PERF Summit ......................................................................................... 52 Acknowledgments PERF’s Critical Issues in Policing series is America Government Sales; Robert Hofman, designed to focus attention on emerging issues in Corporate Vice President, Government Relations; policing. As we begin a Critical Issues project, we Domingo Herraiz, Vice President, North American usually don’t know the answers to most of the ques- Government Afairs; and Matt Blakely, Director of tions we are asking; the waters that we are sailing are the Motorola Solutions Foundation. I’d also like to uncharted. But by the time we fnish the project and thank Rick Neal, retired Vice President at Motorola write a report like the one you are holding, we have Solutions, for his continuing advice. conducted a good deal of research and have held a PERF is also grateful to all of the police execu- conference of specially chosen experts on the topic tives, public health leaders, and federal ofcials who at hand. I’m proud that the Critical Issues reports participated in our Summit in April 2014. Many help police executives to get a good start on these police chiefs made time in their schedules to travel emerging issues. to Washington so they could tell us about their Tis Critical Issues project had a two-fold strategies on the heroin and marijuana legaliza- nature, addressing two separate developments in tion issues. We also are thankful to Attorney Gen- the area of drug enforcement. eral Eric Holder, FBI Director James Comey, DEA First, we were hearing about an epidemic of Administrator Michele Leonhart, and ONDCP heroin abuse in many parts of the nation, resulting Acting Director Michael Botticelli for sharing their in hundreds of fatalities from overdoses. In many expertise at our meeting. small and medium-size towns, heroin fatalities are Finally, I’d like to thank all the people at PERF outnumbering homicides. who contributed to this project. Chief of Staf Second, the marijuana legalization initiatives Andrea Luna and Deputy Chief of Staf Shannon that are just beginning to take efect in Colorado Branly skillfully oversaw this project. Research and Washington State are going to fundamentally Assistant Chris Coghill performed background change how the nation looks at marijuana. Many research, and Membership Coordinator Balinda jurisdictions have had medical marijuana for a long Cockrell handled the complex arrangements for the time, but legalization of recreational marijuana is Summit. Communications Director Craig Fischer raising many new issues. and Communications Coordinator James McGinty So we looked at both of these topics, and I hope wrote this publication, and James took the photo- you will agree that this report sheds some light on graphs. Craig and James deserve special recognition what the feld is doing, and what the remaining for pulling together this complex report and making challenges are. sense of an issue that is fundamentally impacting As always, I am deeply grateful to the Motorola the country. Our graphic designer, Dave Williams, Solutions Foundation for its sole sponsorship of the brought his meticulous attention to detail to design- Critical Issues in Policing series. PERF has no other ing the fnal report. project quite like the Critical Issues series, because Motorola Solutions provides independence to PERF to jump on emerging issues as soon as they come to our attention. Tanks go to Greg Brown, Chairman and CEO of Motorola Solutions; Mark Moon, Executive Vice Executive Director President and President, Sales and Product Opera- Police Executive Research Forum tions; Jack Molloy, Senior Vice President, North Washington, D.C. Acknowledgments — 1 Introduction By Chuck Wexler Is the United States fundamentally shift- generation ago. Philadelphia Police Commissioner ing its approach to drugs? Chuck Ramsey recalled that in the 1970s, when he Tat’s a question underlying this report. worked narcotics in Chicago, heroin was 2 or 3 per- I think that in many ways, the nation still sees cent purity. By contrast, in Philadelphia today, the the harm that drugs cause to individual lives and purity is above 70 percent. So it’s much more com- to the fabric of our society. Tere is no question mon for people to accidentally overdose and die. that drug abuse is a scourge and a tragedy. And the Police departments have been sounding the related issue of gang violence associated with drug alarm about this growing heroin epidemic. As trafcking is one of the biggest problems in many Chauncey Parker of the New York County District U.S. cities. Attorney’s Ofce said, Still, around the edges, changes are noticeable. Te police, like other emergency responders, are Tis report details two of those changes. on the front lines and see the consequences of drug abuse every day. At times it seems like they are like Surge in heroin abuse: First, we are experienc- Cassandra