Video: Drugs Rolling Up and Down the Roadways

NOXUBEE and WINSTON COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Two men were recently indicted for trafficking methadone in Lowndes County.

It’s a growing problem and one that law enforcement are trying to stop.

Trafficking is one issue, but addicts are abusing the one thing that could help them.

Traffickers will move any drug, anywhere.

It’s difficult to stop, but law enforcement are using every tool and agency to help them, even when they’re short staffed.

Methadone is prescribed by doctors to help meth addicts fight their addiction.

However, it’s starting to become popular in Mississippi, but for the complete opposite reason.

“Instead of using it to get off other drugs, it’s becoming another drug that they are becoming addicted to. So, evidently, it’s just another thing that’s being abused in the system of the world,” says Winston County Sheriff Jason Pugh.

It’s another abused narcotic hitting the highways.

Sheriff Pugh says his deputies haven’t seen methadone in the area recently, but have in the past.

“It is an up and coming thing, you know, it’s one of the many things that’s changing the world that we worry about now. You know, we’re talking now, about carrying narcan in our vehicles and that sort of thing, in case we become exposed to narcotics in a traffic stop, or touch something that you’re not suppose to touch.”

Law enforcement believe the more well known roadways see more traffickers, including methadone.

“You’re taking drugs from one place to another. Either from one county to another, or from one to state to another and usually, they travel the main roads, which will be the bypass that runs through everybody’s county,” says Noxubee County Sheriff Terry Grassaree.

Sheriff Grassaree says a lot of the drug pushers travel Highway 45.

He knows it’s a problem, but the department doesn’t have the manpower it requires to put a dent in that portion of the drug trade.

“We would have to have really just a special officer, a narcotics officer. His job would just be to work that bypass, but like I said, with us only having six officers, there would be no way we could just dedicate one man just to do it.”

Smaller sheriff’s departments work with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics to help stop the flow of drugs.

“Any type of trafficking, interstate trafficking would be different obviously, and then trafficking through across state lines, but it can be some serious time involved in that, you know, you can get 20 and 30 year sentences, depending on the type of trafficking and amount of drugs and that sort of thing,” says Sheriff Pugh.

Both sheriffs also say MBN helps their small departments keep up with the latest drug trends.