Heroin high: Use of the deadly drug has increased in Wayne in past week

The headline was both sad and disturbing.

"Cases of heroin overdoses spike."

Wayne County law enforcement officials say they have recently seen an increase in the number of overdoses of the drug show up at Wayne Memorial Hospital.

It is a concern for all of us.

When we usually think of heroin, the image of street users comes to mind, but the scourge hits much farther up the social scale, and parents of all young people need to be aware of its dangers.

We know of several cases of young people from good families who experimented with the drug and wound up in the hospital, causing their loved ones both shock and dismay.

Why would someone, especially a young person, turn to one of the most addictive of drugs for a high? Curiosity? Peer pressure?

We don't know. We may never know. But we hope authorities are able to locate the source of the influx of the drug and get it off the street before one of those overdoses proves fatal.

Published in Editorials on April 11, 2016 10:53 AM