Cocaine in Portage County over the past years

Since the beginning of 2013, there has been an up rise in the intake of cocaine in Portage County however, it’s less observed than many would think.

Cocaine is a well-known drug in Portage County but, many people don’t understand where it actually comes from and what effect it has on the body. Portage County’s Administrator Wayne Enders explains this.

“Cocaine is a little different, cocaine is manufactured from cocoa leaves and it gives you a real high and it gives you a lot of warm and sensation but, it doesn’t take you where heroin would take you.”

This highly addictive drug boosts your level of alertness which can lead to many problems within the body.

“It can cause a lot of problems with the heart in that it is really strong and as a result, your heart can have spasms as a result of taking it because everything is accelerated and what you get a spasm you end up getting a blockage and heart attack because you took cocaine.”

In the past six years in Portage County, the corner’s office has not seen as many cases as you think. This is all because of the price of the drug.

“I don’t get that many cocaine cases because cocaine is a high end elicit drug. Usually, it is expensive and therefore its few and far between. It’s a very low percentage of our drug toxicity deaths in our county each year at this county.”

Toxicity reports have increased over the past few years but, it hasn’t been the biggest issue the coroner’s office has seen.

“Drug toxicity reports have gone up every year except last year and it was just about two below of what we had the year before and the year before we set a record. The drug toxicity issue in Portage county has really not changed it just hasn’t been any worse.”

Wayne expresses that this highly alterative drug can cause serious problems to the body which can lead to heart failure.

“There is no safe level. Whether it’s a little bit or lot everybody’s system is different, everybody’s weight is different. Everybody has either been on a drug longer or shorter. One of the problems we find is some people will get off the drug, they will be clean for awhile, then they go back and think they can take the same amount as they did before and they reach that toxicity level and their heart stops.”

Today, cocaine comes in all different shades, colors, and textures which is leaving many addicts in questionable circumstances with the unknown of what it could be laced with.