Dear Editor:
The nightmare of heroin use on Long Island continues unabated, with at least one young person per week dying due to an overdose. Families, lives and dreams are being destroyed every day through the ongoing addiction. Horrifically, there seems to be a continuous flow of new users of this terrible drug.
Parents, entire families, teachers, law enforcement, prosecutors, probation officers, judges and defense attorneys alike are all exasperated with the issue. No one seems to be able to get it under control, putting innocent youths, as well as the safety of our homes, at immediate risk. Those that are already addicted have a relentless battle, possibly even a lifelong battle, to get free. Our best hope is to prevent these naïve young people from starting in the first place. This shall require a massive effort by parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings, religious leaders, teachers, etc.—the entire community—to speak out against trying or experimenting with heroin.
It is a mistake to think that any family is safe, or that heroin use fits a particular stereotype. Please communicate with your families and be aware of this dire problem at hand. It is easy to get caught up saying or thinking: “Not me, not my family, not my grandson/nephew/sister.” However, the reality is that there are many parents and families, right here in our own communities, that have lost their child or a loved one to heroin and are wishing they had known better, or wishing they had done something to stop it.
I am writing this letter to tell you that you can do something: Reach out to them. Talk to them.
Communicate the severity and importance of this issue at hand. We must take every precautionary measure and step to ensure that those who have not tried it will not.
Very truly yours,
Rudolph F.X. Migliore, Esq.
Commack
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