Recently, the state of Ohio has seen the effects that heroin has on it’s citizens, but is anyone finally realizing the problem that this state has with this drug?

Heroin dealers have been using Columbus, Cincinnati and other Ohio suburbs as test sites for their drugs. Basically they are testing whether the drug is too strong or too weak for it’s users, giving no care in the world about the lives they are destroying doing so. 60 Minutes reported that this problem is killing at least 23 people in Ohio every week. That is 1,196 human beings in one year.

"A new University of Cincinnati study says one in five Ohio residents knows someone who is struggling with heroin. One sheriff told us that up to 80 percent of the prisoners in his county jail have drugs in their system, largely heroin” - CBS News. There are even recent overdose cases where heroin is being laced with carfentanil, which is marketed under a different name as a drug used to sedate elephants and other large animals. This drug is 100 times as potent as the fentanyl it is mixed with, making the results of using this fatal. Carfentanil being laced with heroin is so new to investigators that labs didn't even have a standard comparing sample for the drug. Normally first responders are able to administer Narcan, an overdose antidote, to save individuals but recently the Hamilton County coroner in Cincinnati has warned users that this drug might not be able to save you, even if given multiple doses.

According to law enforcement officers, this is a problem that will not be fixed with arrests. Some are relying on the 91 drug courts in Ohio, who tend to treat the addicts that are brought into court like patients rather than criminals. They believe that these addicts need help more than they need convictions. If they get clean, go to therapy and stay clean for over a year, then they are given a chance to start their life over and put the nightmare of their addiction behind them. Other judges feel that you can’t treat addicts with soft treatment. They believe addicts make their own choices, that they aren’t forced on them, and they do not get a free pass.

So the question is, what is going to really make a difference? Do Ohio law enforcement agencies need to put in more time and money and resources into finding the dealers and shutting down the entire heroin industry? Something must be done to stop one of the worst drug epidemics this country has seen. According to a government study, heroin use among teenagers is up 80 percent in the last 10 years. No teenager or young child should have to endure an addiction that heroin brings on, ever. We are all familiar with the story that broke early last week about the couple who was pulled over for swerving and overdosed right in front of the officer, with their four year old son in the back seat. Police released the photos in hopes that they could give a voice to children who can’t speak for themselves who are caught up in the horrors of heroin addiction. Let these parents be an example for parents out there everywhere to make a change so they do not put their own children in harms way like this because of a drug.

Heroin hasn't just hit one part of society or one typical person, it is everywhere and can effect anyone who falls weak to it’s trap. Raising awareness and speaking out about the dangers and intense addiction of this drug to your friends and family could save someone from bringing this drug into their life. It could save a friend, a sister, father, brother, mother, grandparent, or anyone who is close to you.