DRUG USE

Spreading The Word About Heroin

"They used me. I used them ... That's how it goes when you're an addict."

That statement was made Tuesday by a young woman testifying in a trial
against the man who police allege sold her heroin.

That same heroin, according to police, ended up killing a young
Sunbury-area man.

In only three sentences, the reasons people should never even think about
trying heroin are summarized: despair, legal punishment and death.

Use of heroin has exploded in the region, according to police and medical
officials.

There is plenty of evidence. Throughout the valley, emergency crews are
dispatched to drug overdose cases several times a day. Several times a
week, police arrest people on charges relating to heroin use. In two years,
11 deaths in the area have been attributed to the drug.

If the numbers seem bleak, the emotional pain and suffering caused by
heroin are worse.

A recent, five-day series in The Daily Item detailed the personal horrors
suffered by addicts and the people who try to remain close to them.

During drug awareness programs in area schools, students are bombarded with
testimony from former users about the damage that can be done by using the
drug -- damage that often starts immediately after the first snort or
injection.

On the streets, police continue to make heroin-related arrests, letting
users and dealers know there is not a safe haven for the drug -- even in
rural Pennsylvania.

The message is getting out, but is it getting through?

Today, someone in the Valley, likely a young person, will make an
irrational, self-destructive and illegal choice to use the drug for the
first time. The path that led them to that choice is long and complex. The
actual decision to use or not to use is a simple matter of life and death.

Health professionals can decide how best to treat the disease of addiction.
Law enforcement officials can decide how to deal with the criminal aspect
of the drug trade.

Regular people, meanwhile, have the opportunity to shout from the rooftops
that heroin is no good. Every resident -- from children to parents to
grandparents -- needs to know. Users' lives are changed for the worse the
first time they touch the substance.

Keeping the issue alive in every public forum is an intelligent way we can
guarantee that people make the right choice.