MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW)- The Horry County Community Violence Subcommittee held a workshop Tuesday.

Among the items on the agenda was a presentation by 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson on the growing heroin epidemic. The solicitor presented statistics that showed opiates accounted for over 40% of unintentional drug deaths in 2008.

Currently, there’s 15,000 opiate overdoses each year. That number is second only to motor vehicle accidents. The Horry County Coroner’s office works at least 2 overdoses a week and the Solicitor’s office says the number of arrests has doubled.

The Solicitor says the heroin comes in from Mexico and heads to New York and New Jersey before coming down to Horry County. When it gets here, you can find it everywhere including schools.

Richardson says there’s been a drug-related arrest at every middle school in Horry County. He said they are seeing most of the heroin overdoses happen in the City of Myrtle Beach. As a result, Myrtle Beach Police have formed a new Heroin Overdose taskforce.

“You get a person that’s there with a needle in their arm, before you would just put them in a bag and take them off for an autopsy. Now they ask the questions, they dump the phones, they get the search warrant and they are trying to go up to who sold the drugs to this person,” Richardson said.

The taskforce will include members from every local law enforcement agency, the DEU, FBI, Solicitor’s Office and local rehab facilities. The goal is to get to the root of the problem and charge the drug-dealers distributing them.

“It’s not just us addressing this problem, it takes everyone to address the problem. So, as we sit down at the table and discuss our issues as to what we’re seeing in our area and what others may be seeing. We can exchange information and ideas how to combat that problem and that way it’s more effective,” MBPD Lt. Joey Crosby said.

The taskforce will meet each month to discuss their heroin cases and the best way to move forward.

The Horry County Community Violence Subcommittee is also creating a 7 point plan to address the heroin problem on the community level.

This will include expanding current programs like Project LEAD, revamping older programs like DARE and creating a new 311 system for the community.

The committee is creating a report and will present that to Horry County leaders next month.