THE STORY BEHIND THE SERIES

Long considered a staple of the inner city and the alleyway, heroin has
snaked its way into Morris County, leaving a trail of death and devastation.

The year is just three quarters gone yet the scourge has already claimed as
many as 16 lives, devastating families and confounding efforts to stop it.

The warning signs were there for anyone watching statistics kept by
agencies ranging from the federal Department of Human Services to the
Morris County Medical Examiner. They were there in the stories coming out
of hospital emergency rooms of children overdosing in cascading numbers.
They were there in the rising number of arrests for drug offenses.

The warnings became alarms in seven grim weeks beginning March 25. Four
young people from Morris County -- one of the wealthiest and best educated
in the country -- died of heroin overdoses. The first was 17, from Rockaway
Township; the second was 20, from Parsippany; the third was 21, from
Butler; the fourth was another 17-year-old from Rockaway Township.

The Daily Record set out to tell the stories of the 16 dead in the hope
that it would help preserve the living from the agony of addiction and
families from grieving wasted lives.

In articles over six days, we present the biographies of six of those
buried by heroin, examine how and why the drug became chic and what Morris
County might do to stop this killer's spread.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski