The issue: Heroin's rise

Our View: Stop It Now

We should take the report of heroin use on the rise in Northern Kentucky as
a chilling warning.

We cannot afford to do anything less.

Our communities must not let this deadly, addictive drug gain any kind of
new foothold and most certainly cannot minimize or deny the problem, which
is too often a tendency with this drug.

Three overdose deaths in four weeks all tied to heroin are clear signals
heroin is here. We must be alert, on guard and ready to fight its spread.

Heroin use across the nation has climbed over the past decade, so its
existence here should not be a surprise. During the '90s, treatment for
heroin addiction increased across the United States, indicating growing
use. One study found admissions up by 200 percent or more in six states and
by more than 100 percent in 11 others.

Part of the reason for the climb, experts say, is because in a decade
focused on cocaine, the deadly lessons of heroin were forgotten.

"We've seen a significant increase in Northern Kentucky in the last 1 1/2
years in heroin trafficking and use," Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force
Executive Director Jim Paine told reporter Shelly Whitehead. "And a lot of
people you don't expect to be heroin users are heroin users. . . . It's
spread across the spectrum from professionals to high school students to
street people."

Police have to stop the spread of the drug and must be given the time and
resources to do so. Families and social service agencies have to intervene.
Education has to take place. The lessons of heroin must be relearned.

Heroin is a killer, pure and simple.

Killers must be stopped.