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Editorial: Wages of heroin
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It's terrifying to see what havoc addiction is wreaking on the Smithtown area.
Not only is the documented uptick in heroin use in recent years shattering abusers' physical health and mental well-being, in some cases leading to overdoses and suicides. Now the destructive pall cast by the hyper-addictive opiate is falling not only on addicts and their family and friends, but residents entirely removed from heroin use.
At least 17 home burglaries and a robbery in Kings Park and Commack in the last month were fueled by young adults' need to generate money to fuel their heroin use, according to Suffolk police. It's another example of the sad, time-proven formula: Addiction drives what are otherwise law-abiding people into crime, sometimes violent, to pay for their habits.
Fortunately, local authorities seem to have begun fighting the scourge productively.
Forums on heroin use, held by local government agencies and school districts, have become ubiquitous, often well-attended, events in the past year. Knowledge does not seem to be enough to keep youth — most who are told drugs are destructive from the day they leave the womb — from experimenting with narcotics. But it may be enough to shock parents into awareness of the risks their children face.
And parents have a key role to play in warding against chemical dependency, beyond simply teaching and disciplining their children against drug use. Experts say the heroin-addiction spiral generally begins when youth get hooked on legal prescription painkillers, such as Vicodin, found in their parents' medicine cabinets. Parents must keep these substances out of their homes or, if necessary to treat a health condition, hidden, under lock and key, just as they would with firearms.
But the more influential battle against heroin is an economical one. Simply put, we must make it too costly, in terms of money as well as manpower, to peddle heroin to Smithtown's youth.
Suffolk police appear to be doing just that. Multiple drug ring busts in the past months have lead to the arrests of dozens of alleged dealers, and perhaps equally as important, seizure of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of narcotics, firearms and cash.
We emphasize the latter because the fear of years in prison has apparently not dissuaded many dealers from their sadistic trade. But, if law enforcement develop a reputation for routinely seizing the dealers' products and proceeds, we can send a message that dealing in Suffolk is comparatively not that profitable.
To that end, we must remain vigilant. We should not be lulled into thinking the heroin problem is under control when we read of large dealer busts and community organizations handing out drug-test-your-children kits.
Residents, whether related to heroin abusers or potential victims of their drug-money-raising crimes, must press local governments to maximize funding for law enforcement efforts to capture drugs and their dealers. And they must always guard against the threat lurking in their medicine cabinets.
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