Heroin Making Aggressive Comeback in Central Minnesota

ST. CLOUD  (AP) - When Brent Fair became an undercover drug investigator almost seven years ago, methamphetamine was the big concern. Overdoses on other drugs were rare.

As Fair returns to patrol duties, the landscape has changed. And he says it scares the heck out of him.

Heroin has made an aggressive comeback in central Minnesota.

There have been five overdoses resulting in two deaths in the last month and a half in the St. Cloud metro area, four deaths in Mille Lacs County, two more in Sherburne County since the first of the year and at least one each in Wright and Morrison counties since Jan. 1.

It's a statewide problem, too.  Hospital-treated heroin cases in Minnesota were up 68 percent in 2011 compared with 2010.

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