MERIDIAN, Miss. — The country’s growing opioid epidemic is forcing law enforcement agencies nationwide to address a growing problem, but officers are taking special steps to confront the trend head on.

Officers from five states gathered in central Mississippi this week for a class designed to teach them to recognize and identify drug use in their communities.

Officers from five states gathered in central Mississippi this week for a class designed to teach them to recognize and identify drug use in their communities.

“It’s kind of like having a jigsaw puzzle and finally getting the missing pieces,” Sean Daniels, of the Harris County Sheriff’s Department in Texas, said. “It will definitely change how I investigate.”

Law enforcement officers from across the Southeast come to The Regional Counterdrug Training Academy at the Naval Air Station in Meridian for classes throughout the year.

This week, the students from Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi attended a course over four days at the academy to help them recognize the symptoms of various drugs, how drugs are packaged and how users inject or snort them. 

Mick Mollica, the instructor for the course, has more than 30 years of law enforcement experience. Working with the Drug Enforcement Agency in California, he investigated drug crimes in Central America, Europe and the former Soviet Union. 

“We started with stimulants, today it’s opioids and tomorrow it’s alcohol and depressant drugs,” Mollica said. “We just covered how 27 babies are born every day addicted to opiates.”

Mollica said the class covered depressants and alcohol, ketamine, PCP, ecstasy, marijuana, opioids and more. The body has different responses to each of these drugs, which can help law enforcement determine which drug someone has used. For example, opioids shrink the pupils while methamphetamine dilates them.

“If you’re in darkness your eyes will dilate to help you see. But if you shine a bright light and the eyes aren’t constricting…we know it’s probably (because of) a stimulant of some sort,” Daniels said. 

As opioid and illicit drug use numbers rise in cities and states throughout the United States, officers find themselves up against a swell of uncertainty when responding to a call or pulling over a driver — not knowing what to expect, who they’ll meet or if they’ll encounter illegal drugs that could do harm. Some drugs, such as fentanyl, can be deadly in amounts as small as a few milligrams and threaten law enforcement officers.

The training, paid for indirectly through the Department of Defense, is meant to lessen uncertainty through lessons on properly handling discovered laboratories, issuing proper search warrants and categorizing drivers under the influence of various drugs.

But from near or far, the law enforcement participants agreed on one thing: they wish they’d taken this class sooner. 

“On the streets, I’ve had a lot of involvement with people that I suspected were not in the right state of mind,” Tri Nguyen, with the Pascagoula Police Department, said. “But I didn’t know what was going on. I couldn’t figure it out.”

Back home, Nguyen said he’d be able to identify different drug users from their symptoms and address their needs. He said he hoped this would help him find dealers and confront the various drug issues he encountered. 

“Now I can better help my community… identify users and dealers and help put a stop to this growing opioid epidemic,” Nguyen said.

Downard writes for the Meridian, Mississippi Star.