Don’t be afraid of just a terrorist possibly shooting you in the back someday but be aware of heroine that has taken over your local neighborhood killing your kids. You used to think a heroin addict was just that homeless guy in the dark alley in the big city. No the heroin addict is possibly your kid. Federal and local authorities all over the country say it is the biggest epidemic following us today. Dealers connected to Mexican cartels are making profits by expanding to new markets called the suburbs all across the country. It is only basic economics, the dealers are going to where the money is, your neighborhood.

The consumers are high school seniors and college students. The place is Columbus, Ohio a place that is long time considered typical of American families that even products have been tested there for surveys on products used by typical families. Somehow they don’t look like junkies but they are and most don’t realize it until they find their kid dead in their bedroom still with the needle stuck in their arm. They start with weed then better weed, Vicodin or OxyContin and heroin for that ultimate high or death. Happiness can be a six on a scale of 1 to ten but heroin brings you up to a 26. So, the kids quickly go from smoking it at parties to shooting it up at home.

Some legal opiates are as powerful as heroin and many get hooked on heroin through the prescription drug route. Their excuse is that it is a small town and there is nothing else to do. It is their way to have fun. It has become the worst drug epidemic in this lifetime. There is no place in Ohio where you can’t get heroin delivered o you within 20 minutes. Some say that heroin is easier to get than cocaine. Department store parking lots will always have a dealer. The Mexican heroin can be cheap about $10 a hit or less. Some of it is cut with other drugs that make it even more powerful and deadly. The newest trend is to press the heroin to look like a pill. Heroin has lost its stigma as a poisonous back alley drug.

It is easy for kids to sell their excess pills since they are a popular recreational drug. It is in so much demand in high schools and colleges that one pill can go for as much as $80 dollars. It is impossible to overcome the urges for more heroin. Even after rehabilitation sessions the drug urges can call you again. The hardest part for the parents is to have lost their child to heroin after sending the kid to rehab. The medical field must bear some responsibility for this heroin epidemic. Doctors overprescribe pain medication such as OxyContin. Last year ¾ of a billion pain pills were prescribed by doctors in Ohio.  That represents nearly 65 pills for every man, woman and child in the state.

Parents have to notice when there are missing spoons. It is not because there are lots of cereal bowls in their kid’s rooms. It is for their drug habits. The stigma and pain is compounding the epidemic. Today heroin overdoses take the lives of at least 23 people every week in Ohio. Many deaths go unreported.