Some of Manatee County’s drug problems have traveled west to Cortez and Anna Maria Island.
What drugs, where and how does law enforcement handle them?
Local law enforcement say illicit drugs, most often marijuana, are found during traffic stops, on the beach and in taverns and bars.
Arrests are made, but sometimes not before drugs — heroin, pills and crack cocaine — require emergency responses and take a toll on families and friends.
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office reported a 33-year-old man died in June 2016 of an apparent drug overdose in Cortez after his mother found him unconscious in a bathroom.
The Holmes Beach Police Department reported one death from an apparent drug overdose in October 2016. Bradenton Beach police reported two deaths due to drug overdoses.
Bradenton Beach
The medical examiner’s findings were finalized Jan. 6 on the past Labor Day weekend death of a 42-year-old man on Coquina Beach in Bradenton Beach.
Cocaine intoxication caused the accidental death of Samuel Collins, according to the District 12 Medical Examiner’s January report released this month. Collins died after “illicit drug abuse” at 6:58 a.m. Sept. 4, 2016, the report stated.
Bradenton Beach police believe Collins used drugs with another man, who claimed he’d been drugged on the same stretch of beach several hours earlier. Collins was a transient in Manatee County.
Another Bradenton Beach death suspected as a drug overdose involved a 25-year-old woman in the 2100 block of Avenue B. Detective Sgt. Lenard Diaz said Feb. 16 he is awaiting the medical examiner’s report.
“Drugs are out here. They’ve been here and they’ll always be here,” Diaz said.
“Because tourists pass through here, we’ll see a lot of them. They’re most prevalent in the bars.”
He said law enforcement needs “to be at the right place at the right time to catch them.”
Narcan use
Law enforcement reports many overdose victims saved by the opiate antidote Naloxone. It is sold under the brand name Narcan.
In Bradenton Beach, a 31-year-old New Port Richey man was found unconscious July 30, 2016, in an apartment in the 200 block of Church Avenue. EMS administered Narcan twice and the man survived, Diaz said.
The detective acknowledged the drug “saves lives,” but he also believes it’s “not the answer.” Many people go back to using drugs after being revived.
“With 16 overdoses in Manatee County over the weekend,” he said Feb. 16, “at what point in time do you stop giving it?
“In my mind, you’re enabling them.”
In Holmes Beach, Police Chief Bill Tokajer reports four suspected drug overdoses in August and October 2016.
EMS pronounced Robert Hatfield, 45, of Florida Hills, dead at 12:05 a.m. Oct. 12 after police found him in a car parked at Wells Fargo, 5327 Gulf Drive. He was with a 39-year-old woman from Kentucky, who police awakened and transported to the Salvation Army in Bradenton. Detective Sgt. Brian Hall said Hatfield and the woman had been living in the vehicle.
In August, HBPD officers responded to the Anchor Inn, 3007 Gulf Drive, and found two unconscious females in the bar parking lot. A 911 caller told police they had overdosed on heroin. EMS arrived, administered Narcan and they were revived.
Anna Maria, presumptive tests
MCSO Sgt. Russ Schnering — head of the Anna Maria MCSO-substation — reports no drug overdoses in Anna Maria since taking the reins in February 2016.
Marijuana is the drug of choice in Anna Maria, he said. Deputies will make marijuana arrests after traffic stops and test and weigh the drug at the station.
Presumptive tests for heroin, marijuana and cocaine can be made on the road, as well as at the station. The tests can support the probable cause needed for arrests.
In Holmes Beach, Tokajer says his officers also use presumptive tests for cocaine and marijuana.
But when it’s heroin, he said, “We don’t want our officers touching heroin or inhaling it. Even being around it can be hazardous.”
Diaz said BBPD officers carry test vials in their vehicles.
After the arrests, the island officers inventory and maintain drugs as evidence until the cases end in court.
With certain drugs, such as TCH lollipops and Spice, there is no presumptive test and law enforcement must consult with labs.
Manatee County chemist
That’s where Mike Healy can come in.
He takes requests from local agencies and Sarasota County, as well as the Florida Highway Patrol, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The bulk of the chemist’s work is to help the 12th Judicial Circuit State Attorney build cases. He is the expert prosecutors call to identify any given drug.
Healy’s been “the one-man game” in the MCSO office for 26 years and he’s seen the gamut of illegal drugs.
Asked about trends, Healy said he’s seeing more pure heroin and a resurgence of crack cocaine.
Heroin laced with a narcotic, fentanyl, an opioid analgesic 50-100 times more potent than morphine, is blamed for many Manatee County deaths.
Meth and crack cocaine numbers have risen in Manatee County over the past couple of years, he said.
On the uptick and especially dangerous, according to Healy, is the heroin cut with fentanyl, and also, recently, carfenanil, a large animal anesthetic — intended for moose or elephant treatments.
Synthetic drugs, such as K-2, bath salts and Spice, have shown up but died down.
An indicator of how his work has escalated, Healy reported handling 686 cases with 1,103 items in 2005. Ten years later, his workload was 668 cases with 1,734 items.
“There will be different drugs and multiple buys. There might be six different things in a car. I definitely see the variety,” Healy said.
Most drugs on Anna Maria Island come from traffic stops and “we’re more apt to see marijuana, prescription pills and cocaine,” he said.
“But the island is not a hotbed for drugs. That’s a good thing.”
The make and model of the network-attached printer manual seen in the picture of Bradenton Beach Detective Sgt. Lenard Diaz should be blurred out for security reasons.
Perhaps you’d like to explain that to Diaz???? He posed, we shot photo. I’d say that’s his decision to make. — Bonner