Oklahoma City at a Drug Trafficking Crossroads

Oklahoma City didn’t ask to be placed a major crossroads of drug trafficking activity but that’s what it got. Oklahoma, Cleveland and Comanche Counties are all part of the North Texas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), a federal designation that enables more funding and personnel to be assigned to combat this problem.

As part of the pipeline for drugs being funneled across the border from Mexico and through the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, Oklahoma City inherits also some of the drug traffickers, gang activity and drug abuse-related violence. From this HIDTA, cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin and diverted prescription drugs are distributed to Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Shipments destined for points as far away as New Jersey, New York, Georgia, Florida and Michigan have also been interdicted.

According to the US Department of Justice, Oklahoma City suffers from increased property and violent crime as a result of ample supplies of powder and ice methamphetamine and crack cocaine. Most of the law enforcement agencies in the area report that the highly addictive methamphetamine is the greatest threat to peace and safety. Meth addicts are known for criminal activity carried out so they can continue to obtain more of the toxic substance to which they are addicted. They specialize in property theft, identity theft and credit card fraud.

To Revert These Trends, Those Who are Addicted Must Find Effective Drug Rehab in Oklahoma City

Citizens in Oklahoma City who have fallen prey to the plots of drug trafficking organizations can often only escape by finding an effective Oklahoma City drug rehab. There are 48 drug rehabs in Oklahoma City or within 50 miles. This may sound like a lot but it still leaves a huge treatment gap. In 2009, there were 245,000 people needing alcohol or drug rehab in Oklahoma. But across the state, only about 17,000 people found help at an Oklahoma City drug rehab or one elsewhere in the state. This literally leaves hundreds of thousands of people in the state who are compelled by intolerable cravings to buy and use more addictive substances, no matter what it takes.

The number of people entering treatment includes those who are addicted the most common and most legal drug of all: alcohol. Nearly 7,000 of those who entered substance abuse treatment in 2009 were there for alcohol, either as a primary drug or as a secondary drug they were having trouble with.

Drug addiction even reaches young Oklahomans. In 2009, four children 11 or under entered drug rehab programs to get help for marijuana addiction.

Compared to the rest of the US, Oklahomans were more likely to seek addiction treatment for marijuana abuse, smoked cocaine, methamphetamine and prescription pain relievers. They were slightly less likely to seek drug rehab in Oklahoma City or the rest of the state for alcohol, but this still left 191,000 Oklahomans out of control of their drinking and not entering rehab. Sadly, the top reason these people did not find a rehab service to help them was that they didn’t think they needed help, despite the damage being done by alcohol abuse.

Controlled Prescription Drug Diversion and Abuse is a Growing Problem

As if illicit drugs didn’t create enough of a problem, in the last couple of years, more stolen and otherwise diverted prescription drugs have been distributed throughout the state. Between 2005 and 2009, the number of people entering Oklahoma City drug rehab and rehabs in other parts of the state for addiction to prescription opiates alone has more than doubled, rising from 768 to 1533. In drug rehabs in Oklahoma City and the immediate area, prescription opiate treatment admissions doubled just between 2007 and 2009.

Also in 2009, 248 people lost their lives to prescription drug abuse before they could find an Oklahoma City drug rehab or one elsewhere in Oklahoma that could help save them. Most of the deaths were caused by hydrocodone products (such as Lortab and Vicodin) or oxydocone products such as OxyContin. The other drug that caused too many Oklahomans to lose their lives in 2009 was not a prescription drug but was illicitly-manufactured methamphetamine, smuggled in from Mexico or created locally in small, toxic labs.

One thing is for sure: Oklahomans need help with effective drug rehabilitation that will create lasting sobriety.