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Culinary students bring back Dutch dinner A11
SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 2014 | Vol. 124, No. 32 | WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM | 75¢
HEROIN: CHASING THE DRAGON
Photo by Janis Reid/Whidbey News-Times
Lt. Cmdr. Jim Grant returns home after a nine-month deployment to his wife, Katelin, and son, Ben.
VAQ-130 returns to NAS Whidbey By JANIS REID Staff reporter
Aircrew of Electronic Attack Squadron 130 Zappers were welcomed home with open arms Thursday following a nine-month deployment. “He’s gonna see his daddy today,” said Katelin Grant of her 16-month-old son, Benjamin. Grant’s husband, Lt. Cmdr. Jim Grant, was among the 10 Zapper aircrew to arrive at Whidbey Island SEE ZAPPERS, A20
Hunt hands over school board reins By MICHELLE BEAHM Staff Reporter
Well-known Oak Harbor resident Peter Hunt recently stepped down as president of the Oak Harbor School Board as he continues a battle with Parkinson’s disease Hunt is remaining on the board for now, but said he is scheduled to undergo brain surgery later this year.
Photo by Jessie Stensland/Whidbey News-Times
Detective Carl Seim with the Oak Harbor Police Department holds more than 74 grams of black-tar heroin he seized from a drug dealer. He said it’s worth about $5,000.
Relatively cheap, drug’s use is rising on Whidbey
By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
Once considered a drug for rock stars and hardcore users, heroin has gained a troubling prominence on Whidbey Island, as it has in many communities across the nation. While heroin may not be as popular — or perhaps as destructive — as methamphetamine, Detective Carl Seim with the Oak Harbor Police Department said he worries that the relatively inexpensive but powerful high from black-tar heroin will make it a plague upon the community. And the high is powerful. SEIM, THE department’s drug detective, said he’s heard that paramedics sometimes respond to overdoses to find people unconscious with hypodermic needles still sticking in
their arms. The paramedics administer an opioid antagonist drug like Naloxone, but the users don’t tend to appreciate the intervention. “Usually they get really mad because it will ruin their high,” he said. Zachary Lively, drug court coordinator for Island County Juvenile and Family Court Services, said he’s seen a definite increase in the number of participants who have used opiates, including both prescription pills and heroin. He said opiate abuse “is making an alarming upward trend and will surpass meth if the arc continues.” Equally troubling, he said, is the age of the users. “IT USED to be an older person’s drug, but now we’re seeSEE HEROIN, A10
SEE HUNT, A20
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