By BISHOP NASH
The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON – William Hackney clenched a baggie of olive green heroin behind his back as Huntington police moved in to arrest him last week.
The 25-year-old Akron, Ohio, native, operating under the street name “Hollywood,” was accused of selling a similar pale, sky blue heroin that ultimately caused two Huntington police officers to nearly overdose as they logged the batch as evidence a few days prior. As officers turned their attention to searching Hackney’s Jefferson Avenue apartment, dozens of broken dry erase markers and highlighters were found scattered throughout, according to police.
The color variants, Huntington Police Chief Joe Ciccarelli explained, were Hackney’s own doing: coloring the drugs by squeezing the pigment from the markers’ inner felt reservoirs and mixing it into the drug. The colorful blend appeals to addicts looking for “the good stuff” as opposed to the average ashen brown, tan or gray batches, the chief added.
Colored heroin appears to be purely cosmetic, Ciccarelli said, aside from the additional risk of injecting even more unknown chemicals used as coloring agents. Colorations are, in essence, a branding move used by dealers competing in a market with an estimated 10,000 addicts living in Cabell County alone.
“It’s a way for drug dealers to say, ‘I’ve got the good stuff. If you want some of this, come get mine. I’ve got the pink, or green, or blue,'” Ciccarelli said during a press conference Friday. “I think (dealers) would like it to signify, ‘Mine’s more potent than the dealer down the street,’ and drug addicts flock to that type of material despite the added risk.”
Coloring heroin is not a new tactic, nor is it limited to Hackney’s method. Huntington police have discovered Kool-Aid used as color additives in the past. Ciccarelli pointed out the irony in that, of all the chemicals cut into street-level heroin, Kool-Aid is likely by far the safest.
A pinkish, peach colored heroin was behind the infamous mass-casualty overdose event last August near Huntington’s Marcum Terrace, landing 22-year-old Bruce Griggs behind bars after he was convicted of selling the drugs that sparked it.
Dealers have used similar marketing practices in the past, often dubbing their batches with eye-catching names. The infamous “Gray Death” and “Jungle Killer” batches of the past few years are such examples, Ciccarelli said. As with color, names generally do not denote different potencies.
Dealers may also market drugs based on packaging. Small packets containing individual doses, commonly called bindles, often depict various icons or slogans, anything from animals to hearts to skeletons. The “Jungle Killer” batch in particular rose to prominence by this method through bindles depicting a skull wearing a beret with its namesake written beneath.
Although simple, Ciccarelli said these do appear to be effective marketing tools.
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