WILL IT EVER STOP?

I was in Ocala in August for the funeral of our beautiful 28-year-old niece,
who died of a drug overdose. We have no reason to believe it was
intentional.

I'm mad at this stage of mourning. She was the sweetest child and offered so
much joy to our family until she reached her teens and turned to drugs for
comfort. Despite all the things we did to try to help her see a better way
for her life, she is now dead.

What is it going to take and how many lives will be lost to drug addiction?
When are more eyes going to open?

Are parents paying attention? Are our schools paying attention? Are we
lacking in law enforcement officials to get a handle on what's happening on
our streets and in the nicest of homes?

Are you aware that doctors sometimes prescribe pain medications patients
with legitimate pain, oblivious to the fact that the same drugs they
prescribe are sometimes being sold to others to take, abuse and kill?

There has to be something done to stop this. But what is the answer?

As long as we sit back and do nothing as our fellow human beings die, we are
advocating the very thing many of us fight against.

I will suffer this loss for the rest of my life. The pain and anger will
never go away. I know many reading this have lost loved ones to drug abuse.
Do we ask ourselves why this is happening and what can be done to curb - if
not stop - such tragedies?

Will you open your eyes and see what's happening or ignore the problem?

Marcia Thompson, Franklin, NC