Heroin Crisis on the Rise in Fulton County

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - Fulton County is dealing with what it calls "drastic increases" in heroin-related crime and deaths which are up more than 2,000 percent.

A recent report entitled, "A Brief Window of opportunity: Heroin in North Fulton County" indicates the illegal drug is extremely addictive, dirt cheap and easy to get.

District Attorney Paul Howard and other community leaders gathered at Lindsay Street Baptist Church on Friday because they said the problem can be attacked and lives can be saved. The district attorney's office called the church the epicenter of the open air market for heroin sales in metro Atlanta.

Heroin-related deaths rose from four in 2010 to a projected 93 in 2015. Of those Atlanta deaths, 25 percent occurred in zip codes located in "The Bluffs" or English Avenue and Vine City. A whopping 52 percent of those who died in Fulton County live in north Fulton or northern suburbs.

U.S. Attorney John Horn said Mexican cartels are flooding the Atlanta area with cheap and convenient heroin. The mayor of Rutland, Vermont traveled to Atlanta to talk with Howard and other leaders about the problem that gripped his city so badly, police could not arrest their way out of the problem.