Heroin Use Becoming Epidemic In Philly Area Suburbs - KMSP-TV

Experts call heroin a destructive and dangerous drug and now they say it has entered the suburbs, from Royersford, to Limerick and Norristown, even a couple from Lehigh County.

Police say heroin has become the suburban drug of choice. And along with it comes some devastating consequences.

"One shot could kill you," Montgomery County DA Risa Vetri Ferman told FOX 29. "We often say you're going to wind up either dead or in jail."

That played out just last week when police say Blake Bills and Shayna Sykes from Macungie went on a heroin fueled crime spree.

They allegedly stole two police cars and lead cops on three high speed chases in 48 hours.

Their arrest and the destruction they left behind made headlines for days.

"It's just unbelievable that two young people with apparently a very bad narcotics habit would go to those extremes," said Camden County Prosecutor Warren Faulk last week.

DA Ferman and others say heroin use is becoming an epidemic in the suburbs. It lead to 40 heroin deaths in Montgomery County alone last year and a wave of drug fueled crimes.

"We're seeing burglaries, criminal mischief. Theft. All sorts of things to get the money they need to fuel their habit," Ferman explained.

Ferman says it usually starts with teens getting hooked on prescription drugs. That can quickly escalate to heroin, because the drug is so cheap compared to prescription pills.

"We have to get to kids and their families before these addictions even start," she said

Next month the DA will install permanent prescription drug drop boxes at police stations across the county. She wants parents to turn in unused prescription pills to prevent their children from getting hooked on them.

"Don't leave unused medicine in your medicine cabinet, get rid of it," Ferman said.