Heroin is a dangerous drug. We all know that. But for a long time, it was a drug that remained out of the mainstream, reserved, in many people’s minds, for the inner cities.
Somewhere, somehow, a few years ago, though, the awful drug made its way out of tiny inner circles and has become an epidemic throughout our state.
The Department of Human Services Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services released a report in May that found that in 2014, 28,332 people in New Jersey were admitted into substance abuse treatment programs with heroin or another opiate listed as the individual’s primary drug. That’s almost half of the 64,766 people who entered treatment programs last year.
More terrifying is the significant increase in the number of heroin-related deaths. In 2009, 351 heroin deaths were reported in New Jersey, according to the state Department of Criminal Justice. That number jumped to 449 in 2011, up to 591 in 2012, then 741 in 2013 and finally 781 last year.
The state has been trying to curb this problem by first giving life-saving Narcan kits to police departments throughout New Jersey, and then expanding that program to provide the kits to anyone — police or not — who completes training.
It’s great that there is a tool that can help save the life of someone who has overdosed on heroin. But saving the life in that instance does not stop that person from taking the drug.
The next step in our state’s fight against heroin must be more educational and treatment programs, readily available to kids at a young age. Can we build more facilities and expand drug prevention education?
The way to stop heroin-related deaths is to prevent people from using the drug in the first place. Because, once they use the drug, it’s an uphill battle fighting its highly-addictive nature.
