I read the heart-wrenching Sept. 7 story, “Parents blunt in daughter’s obit.” It dealt with the untimely heroin death of an 18-year-old girl and the blunt openness that the parents related to her senseless and untimely death. It also mentioned the increase of heroin-related deaths throughout the country. In their county in Ohio alone, the death rate has increased over 60 percent in two years. They, as parents, understandably do not want other families going through the same emotional agony that they have been and are experiencing.
I was rather disappointed that there were no further comments for a local angle in regards to the drug’s use in Clark County. I frequently walked Padden Parkway over the past four months, and for the first time I have seen various items of drug paraphernalia, including used alcohol swabs and syringes, in the walkways and overpasses. I would have liked to read more in regards to the prevalence and statistics of drug abuse within our community, which I understand are serious as well.
Parents need to be informed and not have the mindset that “this could not happen to my child,” lest they suffer the same consequences as this poor Ohio family.
