EDITORIAL: Sad realities of drug abuse

Teachers, parents and people who work with youth-serving organizations were among those who attended an Indiana Youth Institute session last week in Paoli. They heard the informed perspective of a seasoned law enforcement officer as he conveyed the dangers of two dangerous drugs increasingly used by teens. The drugs are heroin and spice (synthetic marijuana). Paul Andry heralds the message that users clearly are risking their lives when they decide to give the drugs a try.

Andry, a detective with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and a former drug enforcement officer with Indiana State Police, said, “These spice users are as addicted to that as anything I’ve ever seen. … This is the scariest thing, I think, going for young people because it has been touted as a safe alternative (to marijuana), and it’s anything but (safe).”

Andry pointed his audience to an Internet site that focuses on stories of people who died as a result of using spice. A particularly disturbing reality is that many of those whose deaths are discussed had not previously used drugs.

“But, they’ve used this and they’ve committed suicide or they’ve committed homicide or they’ve died of an overdose,” Andry said.

The risks associated with heroin use are just as frightening.

Heroin leads to “huge numbers of overdoses,” Andry said. He said some users can build a tolerance, but new users can die instantly because they haven’t developed a tolerance. He said, “You can’t ask your buddy, ‘How much should I take?’ because if they’re a hard-core heroin user, it’s a lot to get the same effect as this person (a new user) would get with a little. … A lot of times, it instantaneously kills.”

As Andry points to these alarming trends, he acknowledges what’s clear to any serious observer: there is no quick and easy fix to the problem. But the ugly realties associated with the threats must be hammered home to anyone who will listen. No solutions will ever be found without widespread recognition of the gravity of the problem.