Recent statistics reveal that heroin-related deaths have doubled in 2012 compared to last year, according to local law enforcement officials.
There have been 14 opiate-related deaths this year, according to Bob Wachsmuth of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station’s Juvenile Intervention Team. Last year, there were seven, he said.
He said he’s also waiting on the results of three more toxicology reports that will likely push that total to 17. That number includes four suicides, Wachsmuth said.
“It tells us that more of the heroin addicts, the kids who graduated from lesser drugs … that more of them are dying because more them have graduated into the heroin class,” he said, describing opiates that have addictive and deadly consequences.
“The number of deaths are going to grow in the same proportion over the number of kids who smoke marijuana over the last five years, because they graduate,” Wachsmuth said.
The problem is occurring across the country, said Cary Quashen, who runs local substance-abuse center ACTION Family Counseling. Teenagers need to be informed before they make their first contact with drugs, he said.
“Of course it’s on the rise, as a society, we’re not attacking early drug use as quickly as we should,” Quashen said. “The first time we know that are young kids are using anything like that we need to jump on it hard.”
The problem is that we need to “hard-wire” the message into them at a younger age, Quashen added. He said the city-school-law enforcement’s peer-led partnership, Drug-Free Youth in Town, was a good step toward addressing the problem. The program launched at the beginning of the school year.
“I believe that when we’re young, we have a contract of things in life we’re not going to do,” Quashen said. “What’s great about DFYiT is that it’s going to help kids remember what their priorities are.”
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
Tweet This
Facebook
Digg This
Bookmark
Stumble
RSS
REAL NAMES ONLY: All posters must use their real individual or business name. This applies equally to Twitter account holders who use a nickname.
4 Comments
One time I smoked 5 marijuanas and I turned into a unicorn.
On my graduation day, people were just lollygagging and sharing needles. Not enough education in my prior class, “Cannabis to Opiates, The Gateway to…..wha??”
last year i smoked marijuana and then i kept getting aroused looking at men, it was so awkward. i was at the gym in the sauna and all of a sudden i was erect, i got so embarassed i cried
This is bull, i just want all of u to kno i am from santa clarita im also a recovering heroin addict i kno more then half of these people who died carlie coulter the most recent death was one of my good friends that i wentto rehab with. Its so sad to see this happen and i want to telleveryone its not the weed or booze that got us to heroin, most of us it was bcos our parents were never their we did badly in school couldnt get jobs and the cops purposely pick on these kids bcos their quote un quote bad kids or problem children. Santa clarita is full of abunch of crooked cops bad parents who work constantly school that kick kids out for getting pregnant or ditching or grades slipping bcos itlooks bad and cops that are moreworried about ruining kids lives then actually help. So wats their plansend the druggies to jail and give them records and dibilitate them more? If you really want to help and stop them then open a free drug rehab that offers free heroin treatment with medications like subutex or suboxone that also offers food and place to sleep with staff that trully cares about these addicts. I kno all of thisbcos i helped start the heroin phase in santa clarita by giving it to all my friends and helping buy it for their friend thiswas all back in 2007 its 2012 now and look at the change thats happend ive been sober for almost 2 years all thanks to moving the heck away from all the dope getting a loving bf who supports and helps me and a rehab center that really cared.salvation army saved my life and so did my man.this sickens me bcos their only plans to fix this is imprisonment and education to new up coming kids, well ill tell u nowi knew war heroin was and wat it did and i still got high and everyone else did too and they stillgot highim telling u now their plan to supposidly fix this problem is actually going to make it worse but youll all see that soon enough.