Columbia, SC (WLTX)- The drug cartel activity in South Carolina is up and changing in the Midlands.
It use to be that local people were selling drugs only to make enough to consume them, but now Robert Murphy with the SC Department of Drug Enforcement Agency says they're seeing people coming from out of state to make a business out of it.
"It was mainly local people, people born and raised in South Carolina that were our drug dealers" said Murphy, "now we’re starting to see more influence in particular from Mexican cartels."
Now he says there's more organization and they're noticing a full market developing.
"Unfortunately we have a user base here and where there’s a market there’s going to be more people willing to sell and that’s what we have here" said Murphy.
A business that is particularly dangerous because Murphy says the drugs stay in our state.
He wants people to be aware of this but not worried.
"We don’t want that impacting our kids but more importantly we don’t want the violence to change the quality of life we have here in the Midlands" said Murphy.
While marijuana is still the most abused drug on our streets, heroin is also a leading drug choice for cartels.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says heroin use has increased across the US.
Heroin use more than doubled among young adults ages 18–25 in the past decade.
More than 9 in 10 people who used heroin also used at least one other drug.
CDC says people who are addicted to marijuana are 3 times more likely to be addicted to heroin and those addicted to painkillers are 40 times more likely to get hooked on heroin.
Because it take a village to combat the war on drugs, Murphy says it's important to remember not to stigmatize a certain community.
"There’s always been a Mexican community working and living here, what we don’t want is Mexican cartels coming here strictly for the drug business to blend in those communities and then stigmatize that community" said Murphy.
Allison Atkins has been fighting addiction and drug abuse with LRADAC in our city, she says about 20% of their patients use some sort of opiate including heroin.
"We know that heroin is affecting every population and for whatever reason we are seeing an increase among young people who are usually white and middle class" said Atkins. A trend that is seen nationally.