The Heroin Epidemic is affecting so many young adults in our area. It's causing crises left and right to the friends and families of victims, finding out their loved ones are no longer survivors of this horrible epidemic. I could've lost a dear friend and have seen one of my dear friends lose one of the most precious people in the whole world to heroin.

The problem is that these individuals aren't just injecting themselves with heroin. Dealers are providing laced heroin with even stronger narcotics that get them even more addicted. I was horrified when I found out that heroin now is often laced with fentanyl, an opioid that is 100 times stronger than morphine and incredibly more addictive, especially if taken over a long period of time. That's why hospitals only give it for a very short time or in small doses.

Now heroin can even come laced with carfentanil, a commercial drug used to tranquilize elephants. It's not approved for human use because it's 10,000 times stronger than morphine.

You'll notice I say victims rather than drug abusers. That's because I don't see these users as bad people. I see them as people who previously had good, mostly normal lives until they had something happen to them. It's not always the stereotypical people you'd expect to fall off the wagon and become drug users. It happens to good people and good families, too. What happens is something in their life that they don't know how to deal with. So they become susceptible to using drugs and get addicted to them because they find a quick and easy way to feel good. What isn't easy is keeping up a normal lifestyle or quitting. Their bodies are soon physiologically addicted and they have to sacrifice everything to continue this dangerous addiction. They have to sacrifice money, time, a normal lifestyle, and their relationships with family and friends. This can happen to anyone who is depressed, sad, hurt, too risky, or trusting of dealers. They might think it could be a temporary fix, but then it takes over their lives.

Please take a moment to pray for these victims and their families.

Then, please do what you can to stop it. If you know a dealer, report them. If you know a user, get them help. If you think someone is depressed, TALK TO THEM. It's better to be safe by making sure they're OK, than to one day wake up and find they're anything but I've seen it hurt the ones I love. It's taken the lives of too many beloved, precious people. It's horrible, it's rampant, and it needs to stop.