Last weekend, Duluth police responded to several overdose incidents believed linked to the illegal use of heroin. The incidents involved five people, one of whom died.
An editorial in the La Crosse Tribune called on its Wisconsin community to fully acknowledge an epidemic that is getting worse: "Heroin is killing our citizens."
Heroin has made an aggressive comeback in central Minnesota, the St. Cloud Times reported in June, noting five recent overdoses resulting in two deaths in the St. Cloud area, along with four deaths in Mille Lacs County since the first of the year, two in Sherburne County and at least one each in Wright and Morrison counties.
Heroin is reaching deep into Minnesota, while the latest report on drug abuse trends from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, in mid-June, warned that abuse of heroin and prescription opiates continues to rise in the metro area.
The report noted that one in five admissions to addiction treatment programs in 2011 was for heroin or other opiates, second only to treatment admissions for alcohol.
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Such a pattern "is unprecedented and should be of great concern," Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson said in a statement. "It is imperative that communities educate themselves, embrace prevention efforts and become part of the solution in reversing these trends."
These trends have serious implications for law enforcement, health care and public policy.
The report from Carol Falkowski, drug abuse strategy officer for the human services department, follows one issued last fall in which she warned about the availability here in Minnesota of purer, cheaper heroin and the increasing use of prescription painkillers, which can be a "gateway" to heroin abuse.
The mix of legitimate prescriptions and illegal drug supplies further complicates the situation, as do our own behaviors.
Falkowski, who has monitored drug-abuse trends for two decades and is a national leader in her field, noted that drugs have been "de-
stigmatized" in our culture; 85 percent of the population takes a pill of some sort every day. "We are awash in pills," she said, and children observe our pill-popping from their earliest years. She also noted a fourfold increase in painkiller prescriptions, from 40 million in 1991 to
180 million in 2010.
The news reports this summer shine a light on a painful problem gripping communities large and small in our region. We hope they keep us talking -- and supporting the work of those on the front lines.
