Pubdate: Sun, 15 Jun 2014
Source: News Journal, The (Wilmington, DE)
Copyright: 2014 The News Journal
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/1c6Xgdq3
Website: http://www.delawareonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/822

HELP DELAWARE BATTLE HEROIN

Heroin is killing people. It is destroying families and ruining lives.
It is making criminals out of young people, and it is terrorizing
whole neighborhoods.

Worse, it is spreading. Its low price makes it the drug of choice. And
it is cheap. As the reporting in Sunday's News Journal/delawareonline
special series shows, a bag of heroin can go for as little as $3. Yet
a single 30-milligram Percocet could cost about $25. Too many people
die from heroin overdoses. Far more have addictions that are burdens
to themselves and their loved ones.

What is the solution?

Certainly, prevention and treatment are answers. But they remain mere
words without a discussion of how to prevent the drugs from traveling
through the supply chain or how to build the character and provide the
education it would take individuals to resist. Treatment is not a
science. It is expensive and often so far beyond the means of many
users that it borders on the unrealistic. And law enforcement? The
fact that the drug has spread so far and has done so much damage shows
that our blockade is not working.

More can be done, for sure. All of us - private individuals, families,
churches, organizations and government - can spread the word, educate
the young and support the burdened. We can pay for and back treatment
programs.

For decades, users of heroin and other opiates were outcasts. There
was no problem, society ruled, as long as the scourge was confined to
special enclaves, among the poor or among minorities. Now, drug abuse,
in all of its forms, has spread throughout our society.

We used police powers to slow the trafficking. We declared a "War on
Drugs," with presidential drug czars and black helicopters hovering
over borders. Nancy Reagan urged from the White House that kids should
just say no to drugs. A real war developed, with drug warriors facing
off against law enforcement officers. People were killed. Officials
were bribed. And the whole "war" became the butt of jokes.

Now people talk about "decriminalization" and "legalization." Some
people contend it would be better to legalize and control drugs like
cocaine and heroin. Yet our experience with legal, but abused, drugs
like the painkilling opioids OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin shows
that the regulations and the regulators can be corrupted. For years,
more people died from overdoses of these prescription drugs than
heroin. Yes, we need to stop making criminals out of people. But we
also must confront the fact that these drugs pose a danger, not just
to the user, but to all of society.

We need to know more about why people turn to heroin and other
dangerous drugs. We need to know more about how to help those trapped
in addiction out of their torment. We need to come together as a
community to develop a strategy and carry it out.

A good start would be Tuesday night's Imagine Delaware forum at
Dickinson High School auditorium, 1801 Milltown Road, Milltown. Join
us.
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