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Assistant District Attorney Busted With Heroin And Meth During Traffic Stop

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Steve Birr Vice Reporter
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Authorities discovered a supply of syringes, methamphetamine and heroin in the car of top local prosecutor in North Carolina during a recent traffic stop.

Waxhaw Police Department officers stopped James Brandon Graham early Sunday morning on North Broome Street for speeding and having expired tags. When they approached the vehicle, police noticed a syringe full of brownish liquid and subsequently asked Graham to exit his car, the Gaston Gazette reported.

After giving police permission to search his car, officers found six syringes containing heroin, three containing methamphetamine and two that were empty. Graham faces multiple charges including felony counts of heroin possession, methamphetamine possession, and possession and drug paraphernalia.

Graham served as an assistant prosecutor in the Gaston County District Attorney’s Office for at least five years and previously handled drug cases. District Attorney Locke Belle does not expect Graham’s arrest to affect any current cases, the DA said and added the cases have been turned over to other employees.

“I am not going to say anything about the case because it is a pending case in another county, but he is no longer handling cases in this office,” Bell said, according to the Gaston Gazette.

Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental death for Americans under age 50, killing more than 64,000 people in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The increase is driven primarily by opioids, which claimed 42,249 lives in 2016 — a 28 percent increase over the roughly 33,000 lives lost to opioids in 2015.

Opioid overdose made up a staggering 66 percent of all drug overdose deaths in 2016, surpassing the annual number of lives lost to breast cancer.

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