“We live in a wonderful town...a beautiful community. How do we get people to realize that when we’re walking along shopping there are kids buying and selling heroin?”
--- Kingsley Little, whose son suffers from heroin addiction
A small bag of heroin is now cheaper than a six-pack of beer, and easier for young people to buy. In 2015, 17 percent of local high school seniors had “tried an opiate.”
We need a comprehensive, community approach that links law enforcement and the medical community with mental health professionals and accessible treatment.
"As we all know, there is a major epidemic of drug use in our area, everything from opioids, alcohol to heroin and more. This issue is affecting us all whether we realize it or not."
--- Jenise Lucey, executive director, Berkshire South Regional Community Center
In her latest column on heroin addiction, Jennifer Wheeler writes: "With so many people overdosing these days, it is so scary. I know this is a terrifying situation for anyone involved but I would rather be prepared than let someone die – yourself included!"
Police Chief William Walsh says his department is aware of Great Barrington’s “downtown [drug dealing] activity” and they monitor it. “We have to walk the line between harassing people and doing our job … we know who the players are.”
In her letter to the substance that has damaged her life, Jennifer writes: "Stay away! I don't need you anymore! I want my life back! Please do not look for me in my darkest part of my soul!"
"I feel that bringing charges against heroin is almost like questioning the fidelity of a good friend. I have used it with good results.”
-- An American physician in 1906
The Obama Administration is committing millions of dollars to contend with the prevalence of heroin addiction in New England. The Berkshires are not immune. A poem, here, about what an overdose feels like.
I hate heroin. I hate that it disappeared some of my childhood friends, killed others, and left still others straggling down our Main Streets with those shadows in their cheekbones.
We cannot dismiss the problem of heroin and the underlying, mysterious madness of the youth here. What do people need to escape from when they need to escape this much, this far?
