Heroin crime immunity yields mixed results, AP review finds

Reeling from a surge in heroin overdoses, authorities in the Cincinnati area made an offer: Hand in potentially deadly drugs, and you won't be charged.

But the blanket immunity granted by a judge there over a month ago hasn't brought in any heroin so far.

Results from similar efforts elsewhere also have yielded few drugs, according to a review by The Associated Press.

Still, that hasn't dissuaded supporters who, along with officials nationwide, feel like their backs are against the wall as they try to fight the opiate crisis.

"Turn it in, get it off the streets; get it out of your homes, out of your families," Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco, the Hamilton County coroner, pleaded last month.

She and other county leaders had hoped people would willingly come forward with deadly drugs when a judge granted their request for blanket immunity Sept. 7.

But as of Tuesday, the prosecutor's office had yet to hear about any drugs being turned in to any local law-enforcement agency in the county.

"We weren't expecting a lot of drugs," said Julie Wilson, a spokeswoman. "It was something out-of-the-box to try whatever we can to deal with this problem."

Addicts who have gone through similar efforts in other parts of the country say they aren't surprised Cincinnati's effort hasn't borne fruit.

"The tangible drug is just the surface, and with no available access to treatment, you're essentially yelling to a drowning person, 'Just keep swimming!' without actually throwing a life preserver," said Steve Lesnikoski, 31, the first to go through a pioneering heroin treatment program in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Launched in June 2015, the ANGEL program lets addicts turn in their heroin to police without fear of arrest.

But officials said fewer than 20 percent of the over 500 addicts placed into treatment have taken them up on that offer.

Two communities that were among the earliest to adopt Gloucester's approach have seen similarly low numbers of drug drop-offs.

In Scarborough, Maine, roughly a dozen of the over 200 addicts placed into treatment have turned in small quantities of drugs and paraphernalia.

In Dixon, Illinois, two of the more than 100 addicts so far placed into treatment have handed over drugs willingly.

The efforts are more focused on getting people into treatment than rounding up drugs, said John Rosenthal, director of a Massachusetts organization supporting Gloucester's and some 160 similar efforts nationwide.