While we wait for the latest numbers to be released by the Recovery Resource Coordinator, Kevin Knowles we continue to watch as the rising cost of this heroin epidemic here is being paid at a high price, with human lives.
Those who are affected by this are growing in numbers. The ages of those trying this drug for the first time for whatever reason are getting younger.
Recently announced is the news that the indigent funeral fund for this state is defunct. It is only March and the $2 million allotted for poor families is gone.
Martinsburg, WV and Berkeley County, WV had three decades to prepare for this after the Crack Cocaine bust of the Hill in 1986 and our local law enforcement seemed to many of us living here to have gone to sleep after the celebrations and the parades.
Crack Cocaine never left here. It only moved to the rural areas. Soon after meth moved in and for a time complaints of rising cook houses which probably still exist in the county. While all of this was left unattended for years heroin didn't sneak here into our communities.
No, it marched in with waving flags starting for some as addiction to painkillers; to others, they walked straight into the needle. For many years heroin dealing was out in the open public. At least the dealers never tried to hide it in the parking lot of the convenience store I worked in.
I was pretty naive when I first went to work there. I had no idea just how bad it was. To those of us who worked there we were shocked that although we complained, it seemed allowed to continue. Who knew that in only a few years after first starting work there that one of our sons would try heroin. Now, our family is just a statistic of the numbers who still battle with this addiction.
Just how many more lives have to suffer in this addiction? How many more lives will be lost to this addiction? How many more children will lose their parents? How many families will have to bury their loved ones?
I was pretty naive when I first went to work there. I had no idea just how bad it was. To those of us who worked there we were shocked that although we complained, it seemed allowed to continue. Who knew that in only a few years after first starting work there that one of our sons would try heroin. Now, our family is just a statistic of the numbers who still battle with this addiction.
Just how many more lives have to suffer in this addiction? How many more lives will be lost to this addiction? How many more children will lose their parents? How many families will have to bury their loved ones?
NOTE: This post in no way means that I am knocking down our law enforcement, or officers. I've met many of them and we have some very good caring officers here in Martinsburg and Berkeley County.
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