Police, prosecutors,and medical professionals gathered in Iowa City this week for a summit on the growing problem of heroin addiction in Iowa. They heard how overuse of prescription painkillers leads addicts to turn to heroin — which is cheaper and easier to get — and how heroin use now rivals the methamphetamine epidemic. Doctor Anthony Miller with Veterans Hospital in Iowa City says the heroin problem has its roots in the 1990’s when views on managing pain shifted in American medicine. He says providers began to think that under-treating pain was wrong, and that pain killers known as Opioids are safe.

“And between the years of 1997 and 2007 the amount of Opioids prescribed in the United States quadrupled,” Millers says. Their use in Iowa tripled and the addiction to Opioids soared. Now addicts who started on pain pills are injecting heroin to satisfy the craving. Heroin deaths which we used to be associated with a sordid ghetto life are happening to the boy and girl next door. Andy Brown of Davenport was prescribed Percocet for pain after surgery when he was 14. He died of heroin overdose at the age of 33. His mother, Kim Brown showed pictures of her son during the summit and says he overdosed three times in all.

“The third time he overdosed he died,” Brown says. ” The person he was with didn’t call for help.” Brown now advocates for easier access to a medicine that works as an antidote for an overdose that would otherwise be deadly. That’s one of several strategies experts examined to minimize the damage from heroin use, while law enforcement struggles to keep it off the streets. Federal Drug Enforcement Agent Matt Bradford says big heroin busts are going down in Chicago and that is a key here.

“Chicago is your main source city that supplies Iowa. So, Chicago is important,” according to Bradford. He says the drug comes primarily from a cartel in Mexico. Now officials have launched the Eastern Iowa Heroin Initiative to address prevention, treatment and enforcement in Linn, Johnson, Blackhawk and Dubuque Counties. Jerrry Blomgren with the Johnson County Narcotics Task Force attended the summit with several of his undercover cops.

“A lot of them do undercover buys of drugs. Heroin has been a big problem for all of us,” Blomgren says. A spokesman for the Iowa Department of Public Health says there are more methodone clinics to treat the addicted in eastern Iowa because of the heroin problem there. He says there are clinics in Council Bluffs and Sioux City in western Iowa and that doesn’t leave a lot of options when patients there are coming for daily dosing.

While heroin has grabbed the attention of Iowans the relatively older problem of painkiller addiction persists. Experts say student athletes should be educated about pain meds. They say employers should be aware of the potential for their employees to be over-prescribed pain meds following workplace injuries. Keynote speaker Sam Quinones, author of “Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic,” says pharmaceutical companies should be paying for the unused drug collection efforts underway in some Iowa towns. He says heroin use has exploded because it hasn’t been acknowledged like meth. “People have been mortified to talk about their kid — who died in a McDonald’s bathroom with a needle in his arm,” Quinones says.

Kim Brown knows that frustration firsthand. “Because when my son died in 2011, I didn’t have anywhere to go….nobody would talk to me,” Brown explains. Brown now heads up a group for parents who’ve lost children to drug overdose. She’ll be back will at the capitol next year pushing for a law to let families have the antidote that stops a heroin overdose. She says that might have saved her son’s life.

Health officials say for the 13-year period beginning in 2000, Iowans dying from prescription medication overdoses increased twenty-fold. Heroin overdose deaths experienced the same alarming rate of increase, jumping from one to 20 deaths per year.

(Radio Iowa)

An on-line financial company has released a study evaluating which counties in the country have the lowest per capita personal debt — and a couple of Iowa counties are cited. SmartAsset ranks the residents of Wright County, Iowa, as having the fourth smallest personal debt load of a county in the country. According to the analysis, residents in the Wright County area spend, on average, about 41 percent of their income on a mortgage, another eight percent on credit card debt and seven-and-a-half percent of their income on a vehicle loan.

Clay County ranks second in the state — and 14th nationally — for lowest per capita personal debt load. O’Brien, Des Moines, Allamakee, Buena Vista, Henry, Kossuth, Jackson and Floyd Counties were all ranked in the top 10 — in Iowa — for low personal debt.

In the immediate KJAN listening area:

• Cass County ranks 24th lowest in the State for personal debt load. Residents spend, on average 7.9% of their income on credit card debt, 12.1% on a vehicle loan, and 80.2% on a mortgage. The average income per capita is $25,448.
• In Guthrie County, which ranked 27th, residents spend about 9.5% of their income for credit card debt, 11.6% for vehicle loans, and 66% for a mortgage.
• And in Pottawattamie County, which ranks 54th, and where the per capita income is $25,847, residents spend 9.1% of that for credit card debt, 12.9% for vehicle loans, and 94.3% of their income for a mortgage.

SmartAsset didn’t have enough data to list for Audubon, Adair, Adams, Montgomery and Shelby Counties. Information is available for Harrison, Mills and Page Counties in southwest Iowa. See the link under this same story on the News page at kjan.com, for information about other Iowa counties.

Go to https://smartasset.com/personal-loans/personal-loan-rates#iowa to see the SmartAsset analysis and data for many other Iowa counties.

(Radio Iowa/KJAN)

Officials with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) serving Nebraska, South Dakota, The Kansas Plains and Southwest Iowa, are warning consumers who are shopping for vehicles on Craigslist, that scammers are posing as vehicle sales companies and touting fake escrow services in an effort to defraud them out of thousands of dollars. The scammers are using phony or stolen company names and often claim to be located in Midwestern communities – luring consumers to purchase RVs and trucks online.

Recent reports to BBB indicate that escrow fraud scammers are taking increasingly sophisticated steps to instill a sense of trust in their potential victims. Over the past several weeks, BBB has received inquiries and complaints about scammers using the name “Mayer Auto Center.” Consumers state that they are advertising trucks, recreational vehicles, and heavy equipment on Craigslist.

Consumers, who have responded to their advertisements, relate having received responses by email with photo attachments of the vehicle in which they expressed interest. Emails from the phony business state that since “Mayer” is a trucking company, they will deliver the “unit.” As the sales transaction proceeds, buyers are informed that they should pay by wiring money to Spain where their money will be held for five days in an escrow account managed by JP Morgan while they inspect the vehicle. Buyers are assured that if the “unit” does not meet what was represented, they will get their money back.

Although “Mayer Auto Center” states it is located at 3914 W Jewell St. in Wichita, KS., the BBB’s investigation has verified that no such business is located at this address. One prospective customer from Iowa reported to BBB that he had driven to Wichita to check out an RV he saw advertised on Craigslist, only to learn that the business does not exist.

BBB President and CEO Jim Hegarty, says “When shopping on Craigslist, always meet the seller in a public place and see the item for sale before purchasing. Following this one rule will help you avoid most scams on Craigslist.”

BBB offers these tips when shopping for vehicles online to help avoid a scam:
– Beware of sellers who want to conclude a transaction as quickly as possible. Scammers want to get your money before you have time to think or have a professional examine the deal.
– Watch out for sellers who want you to wire money or use prepaid credit cards instead of a traditional check or credit card.
– Call the seller to establish phone contact. If they neglect details agreed to via email or are unable to answer questions about their location, it is likely to be a scam.
– Make sure websites are secure and authenticated before you purchase an item online. Look for “https” before the web address and online seals that ensure your credit card and/or banking information is secure.
– Use only well-known escrow services. As mentioned above, some fake car dealer websites use escrow services controlled by scammers. Go offline and contact the escrow service through a phone number you’ve determined is legitimate. Make sure they are aware of the transaction you are considering.
– If the price seems too good to be true, there’s probably something wrong. Be wary if the vehicles price is significantly lower than what you’ve seen elsewhere.
– Do not open email attachments and links included in emails from senders you do not know. This may expose your personal computer to security vulnerabilities such as malicious malware and viruses. If you have clicked on attachments or links, you may wish to have your personal computer thoroughly evaluated by a professional.

Consumers are encouraged to research all businesses they plan on shopping with by visiting www.bbbinc.org, calling 800-649-6814, following BBB on Facebook at Facebook.com/bbb1936 for tips about scams or checking for scams on BBB’s Scam Tracker at bbb.org/scamtracker.

The Creston Police Department reports a man from Adair County was arrested early this (Friday) morning. 22-year old Zachary Utterback, of Greenfield, was arrested at around 4:15-a.m. in the 600 block of N. Pine Street, in Creston. He was charged with Public Intoxication and Possession of a Controlled Substance. Bond, at the Union County Jail, was set at $1,000.

And, at around 1:50-a.m. today (Friday), 24-year old Brandon Frey, of Creston, was arrested on charges that include Possession of a Concealed Weapon, OWI/2nd Offense, and Urinating in Public. He was being held in the Union County Jail on $2,000 bond.