In recent weeks there has been 26 heroin overdoses in Cambria County, five of them were fatal. Thursday, law enforcement officials held a press conference to address this ongoing drug issue.
“Not everybody is a junkie out there. It doesn’t matter what your social economic layer is, what your color is, what your race is, your religion, this affect everybody,” says Senator John Wozniak.
The Cambria County Crime Stoppers “Push out the Pusher” program has made 386 arrests, but Thursday they announced a new initiative. They site money as a motivator and want drug dealers to turn in their competitors.
“It is a business,” Senator Wozniak adds. “They create a market by addicting our people and once they’re addicted, they have a permanent marking.”
They’re also increasing rewards from $5,000 to $8,000 for information that leads to an arrest. Law enforcement says right now our prisons are full of nonviolent offenders. They want to work on addiction treatment and get into schools to show there are consequences for your actions.
“Sometimes you feel like is this ever going to change? Is there anything we can do? Well we are not going to sit back and do nothing,” says DA Kelly Callihan.
Callihan estimates that 85-90 percent of all of Cambria County’s cases deal with drugs or alcohol in some way. In the past they have missed on what Callihan calls a grand opportunity in overdose cases because law enforcement isn’t always involved. She says now local, state, and federal law enforcement are working to create overdose teams that respond and gather information.
“These people who overdose, they leave the hospital and they go back to their regular old life where they shoot up again and nobody asks any questions. At least through this process they’re going to be a little bit uncomfortable and have to answer some questions.”
For this new rewards system you can receive up to $8,000. The Crime Stoppers and local law enforcement will determine how much the reward will be based on the quality and amount of information.
