Typically a metro issue, heroin is starting to drift into the county and Mehlville. A recent federal drug bust involved nearly 20 suspects from the St. Louis area who were responsible for distributing more than 400 pounds of marijuana, cocaine and heroin.

Closer to home, on Dec. 5, police arrested a suspect driving a stolen vehicle at Lemay Ferry Road and Evergreen Lane after they discovered that the suspect was in possession of heroin and drug paraphernalia.

"Heroin has just sort of exploded in popularity lately," said a supervisor with the St. Louis County Bureau of Drug Enforcement, who asked not to be named due to the undercover nature of his work. "It used to be that crack cocaine was the biggest problem, but now we see more heroin and marijuana than anything."

Though all illegal drugs can be dangerous, heroin has been called the single most addictive and harmful of all commonly abused drugs, legal and illegal. In the Mehlville area, the most commonly available heroin is black tar heroin from Mexico, and it sells for as little as $10 a bag and for about $100 per gram.

"We're seeing more heroin in our area in our undercover buys," said the officer. "It's very plentiful in the entire St. Louis metro area right now."

In May of 2010, the Associated Press reported that recent improvements in the processing of the poppy flowers Mexican drug dealers used to produce heroin have become more sophisticated—making the final product far more potent than in years past. So potent, in fact, that it has contributed to a spike in overdose deaths nationwide, and authorities have become concerned that the newly enhanced potency and comparatively low price of the drug could lead to an increase in its popularity.  

The purer form of heroin is beginning to attract a new breed of users, especially since it can be snorted or smoked to achieve a "sustainable" high. This makes the drug more appealing to teens and even adult suburbanites.

The officer told Patch that he spoke with school resource officers and they have reported several incidences with heroin in area high schools. In a couple of cases, students became addicted to the drug and went to rehab, only to relapse after being released.

"You don't want to start using heroin— it's a very tough drug to kick," he told Patch. "It's pretty much impossible to function when you're really addicted and it's so obvious when people are on it because they start to look bad and they seem exhausted all the time."

He said that parents are the first line of defense, and that talking with kids about not using drugs is more important than many parents realize. It could literally save a child's life.

"Obviously it's getting bigger in the community," he said. "But it's starting to get in the hands of some of our teenagers, which is why we are stepping up our efforts to stop these dealers."

While the most commonly available heroin in the Mehlville area used to be around 10 percent pure and loaded with fillers, the new more potent heroin is reportedly at least 50 percent and up to 80 percent pure. Authorities report that this new heroin can kill a user on even the first use—sometimes so quickly that the victim is found with the needle still in his or her arm.

Heroin metabolizes very quickly in the body, which can give medical examiners trouble in pinpointing the drug as the cause of death unless there is additional evidence available, such as a syringe or straw found near the body.

In 2000, there were approximately 2000 people who died from heroin doses across the country— and that number skyrocketed by 50 percent in 2008. Law enforcement officials think that number is much lower than the actual number of heroin related deaths, since many aren't reported properly.  And, authorities say, this is exactly how crack cocaine was introduced back in the 1970s— a very pure product sold at a very low price; a formula for creating a large group of addicts who are likely to become a drain on public resources.

But Mehlville is in good hands with the St. Louis County Police on its side, working to keep the situation under control.

According to a report released by the St. Louis County Police Department, its Bureau of Drug Enforcement is "one of the largest locally controlled multi-jurisdictional drug task forces in the Midwest."

In fact, the Bureau has such innovative methods of attacking the drug problems in this area that it has been named "Outstanding Task Force of the Year" in the Midwest three separate times by the White House Office of Drug Control Policy.

Last year alone, the Bureau took down 21 drug trafficking organizations and increased the number of drug investigations by nearly 40 percent.

Considering the deadly effects that heroin can have on even a first-time user, law enforcement officers want to get the word out to the community before it's too late. They're stepping up their enforcement efforts as well as trying to inform the public of the dangers of this new and more potent form of heroin hitting the streets.