Pubdate: Fri, 24 May 2002
Source: Kentucky Post (KY)
Copyright: 2002 Kentucky Post
Contact:  http://www.kypost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/661
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

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.
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MAP posted-by: Alex