Review: Heroin crime immunity yields mixed results

Associated Press

Reeling from a surge in heroin overdoses, authorities in the Cincinnati area made an offer: Hand in potentially deadly drugs and you won’t be charged. But the blanket immunity granted by a judge there more than a month ago hasn’t brought in any heroin so far.

Results from similar efforts elsewhere have also yielded few drugs, according to a review by The Associated Press. Still, that hasn’t dissuaded supporters who, along with officials nationwide, feel like their backs are against the wall as they try to fight the opiate crisis.

“Turn it in, get it off the streets; get it out of your homes, out of your families,” Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco, the Hamilton County coroner, pleaded last month.

She and other county leaders had hoped people would willingly come forward with deadly drugs when a judge granted their request for blanket immunity Sept. 7. But as of Tuesday, the prosecutor’s office had yet to hear about any drugs being turned in to any local law-enforcement agency in the county.

“We weren’t expecting a lot of drugs,” said Julie Wilson, a spokeswoman. “It was something out of the box to try whatever we can to deal with this problem.”

Recovering addicts who have gone through similar efforts in other parts of the country say they aren’t surprised Cincinnati’s effort hasn’t borne fruit.

“The tangible drug is just the surface, and with no available access to treatment you’re essentially yelling to a drowning person, ‘Just keep swimming!’ without actually throwing a life preserver,” said Steve Lesnikoski, 31, the first to go through a pioneering heroin treatment program in Gloucester, Mass.

Launched in June 2015, the ANGEL program lets addicts turn in their heroin to police without fear of arrest. But officials say fewer than 20 percent of the more than 500 addicts placed into treatment have taken them up on that offer.

Two communities among the earliest to adopt Gloucester’s approach have seen similarly low numbers of drug drop-offs.

In Scarborough, Maine, a dozen of the more than 200 addicts placed into treatment have turned in small quantities of drugs and paraphernalia. In Dixon, Ill., two of the more than 100 addicts so far placed into treatment have willingly handed over drugs.

The efforts are more focused on getting people into treatment than rounding up drugs, said John Rosenthal, director of a Massachusetts organization supporting Gloucester’s and some 160 similar efforts nationwide.

“Just to be 100 percent clear, we don’t view our programs as offering ‘immunity’ for people in possession of illegal drugs,” he said. “We are offering access to treatment without arrest, shame or judgment, and if participants happen to bring in drugs, police will gladly receive and destroy them.”

Dixon Police Chief Dan Langloss agreed: “It’s an important part of the program, but it’s not the focus. It sends a message to people struggling that we’re not here to arrest you. We’re here to help you.”

Simply offering immunity for turning in drugs isn’t enough; programs need to offer ways of ending the cycle of drug abuse, arrest and incarceration, addiction experts say.