Posted Wednesday, October 14, 2009 -- 9:25 p.m.

So far this year, there have been 106 drug overdoses in Dane County. There were only 78 last year.

Officials in McFarland believe Heroin and its increasing popularity could be behind the spike.

McFarland's Public Safety Committee met with several law enforcement agencies to learn about Heroin and its impact on their community.

Before the meeting started, NBC15's Barclay Pollak asked one of the men presenting what other drugs they were seeing on the street.

His response: "Are there any other drugs?"

"People come here to sell Heroin because there is money here. There's money to be made on Heroin."

According to McFarland P.D. Sergeant, Jesse Crowe, the problems started just over a year ago. And since then, business has been good for Heroin dealers in McFarland.

He says, "About a year and half ago the first one...a neighbor found a young gentleman in his driveway not breathing."

Since then the small community has had four overdoses.

Sgt. Crowe says, "Three of those the doctors said would have been fatal."

The latest overdose happened at a bowling alley just a few weeks ago. Cops found the body of a 21-year old dumped behind the building. That person survived.

But it's not just the users who are being affected, according to Crowe.

"It's their families that are paying money for rehab, they're losing money from thefts, from items being stolen and pawned off, it's neighbors that are having vehicles broken in to, houses broken in to."

Because of the spike in Heroin and the crimes that go along with it, Crowe says he's spent half of his time over the last year just working Heroin cases.

He says it's been a drain on the villages resources and they need help.

"Patrol is busy with calls and so they can't dedicate all their time to doing follow up on cases."

Crowe hopes to get another investigator to help with the Heroin cases. But because of budget problems he doesn't know if that will happen.

Crowe says another one of the problems they've run into is actually finding someone in possession of the drug. He says that's because the addiction is so strong that as soon as a person gets the drug they use it.