Heroin poses a serious challenge

If Caleb Bauer’s report this week on January’s heroin overdoses in Jay County didn’t scare the daylights out of you, then you need to dig through the stack of newspapers to be recycled and read Tuesday’s front page one more time.

The numbers, folks, are staggering. And the problem seems to have crept up on us while we were looking the other way.

Concerned about methamphetamine abuse, most of us never gave much of a thought to heroin. That was a big city problem, not something for rural America.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Fueled by over-prescribing of opiod painkillers during the past couple of decades and boosted by the sheer economics of drug abuse, heroin — cheap, brutal, dehumanizing and deadly — has moved in next door.

The question now is, what do we do about it?

What do we, as a community, do to stem the tide? What do we do to offer a way out to those who have fallen into the drug’s trap? What do we do to steer others away from that same trap?

There’s little comfort in knowing communities like ours are not alone when it comes to facing this monster. But there is a bit of solidarity.

Brianna’s Hope, a project launched by Pastor Randy Davis after the death of Dunkirk’s Brianna DiBattiste, is getting ready to expand to Montpelier in Blackford County. Clearly, those folks are dealing with the same problem. They’re looking for answers just like the rest of us, and Brianna’s Hope may be a part of the solution.

With its emphasis on helping those who want to break the cycle of addiction find their way into treatment, the organization is making progress one life at a time. The cost of rehabilitation should never be an obstacle when it comes to getting help; that’s the target Pastor Randy has in his sights.

But that — in and of itself — won’t be enough.

It’s going to take an ongoing, concerted effort to identify the factors that lead to addiction. It’s going to take a new level of communication between those charged with enforcing the laws of the land and those attempting to change lives. It’s going to require new ideas, new relationships and new ways of thinking if we’re going to tackle this thing together.

Later this month, Brianna’s Hope is sponsoring what could prove to be a watershed event at Jay County High School, bringing together addicts, cops and those involved with treatment in an effort to lay the challenge squarely in front of this community.

Are we up to that challenge?

Stay tuned. — J.R.