As much as I love what I do, there are parts of it that bother me to no end. Understand, some of these things that bother me aren’t going to change anytime soon and have been there since the beginning.

 

Then, there’s something still relatively new. It’s something that began a year or so ago and has now created so much angst that even a simple “prayer request” without any specifics that may be on the Facebook or Twitter accounts of individuals in my online social circle can cause angst.

 

The angst is a result of the drug problem in our area. It’s been described by law enforcement, those that treat it and even the federal government thanks to our area being considered a high density trafficking area as an epidemic.

 

Don’t believe it? Go to the obituary tab on the “Community” section of our Web site. Check out any area newspaper’s obituary section. See the obits running on WDTV during their news segments.

 

You’re going to see a whole lot of young people – and by that I mean anyone under the age of 45 that should have decades left – that pass away each month. Generally speaking, you can usually tell the individual that has passed is a candidate when there is no reason given for death. There is no mention of donating money to a certain charitable fund that aids victims of the same disease that took their lives. No “sudden illness” or a “long battle with” the disease that led to their demise listed.

 

It’s blank. Yet too often, it is saying something unbearably sad.

 

Although not the situation in every case, all too often the death is the result of drugs. In recent weeks and in recent months, it’s not just heroin or long-term addition to other drugs that’s taken the lives of individuals in Harrison County, it is heroin laced with fentanyl. I remember when I had to Google fentanyl because I wasn’t quite sure how to spell it. Now, I know all too well.

 

Three times in the last three weeks, three individuals I know have passed away – two casually and one closely – as the result of overdoses. I don’t have any medical examiner’s report with me and I don’t have the autopsy reports, but I do know family and those around them and I know what they’ve told me. The culprit is heroin and they all either suspect or fully believe fentanyl was involved.

 

Even if it’s not fentanyl, the fact that three individuals I know have passed away on drug overdoses in less than a month numbs me to my soul. Add to that probably more than a dozen individuals I either knew casually or considered family have died as a result of heroin in less than a year’s time tells me something’s more than just wrong here.

 

The fact that practically every emergency responder, from police to fire and EMS personnel, are not only trained in how to administer the drug Narcan that revives heroin individuals that OD, but have it stocked in their emergency vehicles tells me something is wrong.

 

The fact that you can buy the drug over the counter in at least 14 states at some retail drug stores tells me something is wrong. The fact some school districts nationally either already have it and many are considering it tells me something is wrong.

 

The fact that I’ve seen more overdose deaths in the last year of my life than I have in my previous 47 years on the earth tells me there’s something wrong here. In fact, that tells me there’s something drastically wrong here.

 

Most of us were taught growing up that when you have a wrong, you right it. Whether it’s your wrong or someone else’s wrong, you do what you can to make the situation correct.

 

The problem with the tidal wave of drugs in our community is I don’t think anyone really knows what to do. That’s not a slap at anyone, particularly law enforcement or emergency responders who have their hands full to a level those outside of their shell can possibly understand, but rather a reality of trying to stop the tidal wave with some super absorbent sponges. In other words, the correct resources – whatever they may be – and correct approach at a much broader level than what those tasked with fighting this scourge aren’t there yet.

 

For the life of me, I don’t understand the addiction. I know a lot of it is the result of prescription drug addiction that spirals into heroin and other drugs. For those that aren’t addicted by that route, I can’t understand why someone would see a person with a needle in their arm, eyes rolled back and saliva falling from their mouth would cause someone to say “hey, I want to give that a try.”

 

You know what, it doesn’t matter. Once that first hit is taken you have become addicted. And once addicted, a path of self-destruction that has collateral damage to family and friends becomes unavoidable.

 

Recovery is option three in what happens after addiction. Options one and two are phone calls informing you a loved one is in jail or that your loved one is in the hospital or, worse, dead. The reason recovery is option three is because when someone does beat back addiction, it’s news worthy. When someone dies of addiction, it’s rarely more than the listing of an obituary.

 

I know those options. I’ve had family and friends facing the battle and, for now, some of them appear to be on the mend. I pray it stays that way because those individuals have more to offer the world with a clear mind as opposed one induced by the fog of drugs than they could ever imagine.

 

As I’m writing this on a Monday. I had been waiting to see my friend’s obituary for several day. It appeared Tuesday. There were a few lines and nothing more.

 

While reading obituaries for the last few weeks, there were probably a dozen or more young names – names I didn’t recognize – that listed no “died of a sudden illness” or the criteria listed above. I wondered, as I have so many times recently, did they die because of the epidemic of heroin, meth, cocaine and everything else in our midst?

 

I’ve said it before on certain situations and I’ll say it again. I can’t fathom the pain these families are suffering, but then again maybe I don’t want to.

 

The term epidemic in this case aren’t a scare tactic. Instead, it’s tangible and real. We have an epidemic and I don’t have a concrete answer for the way out. To the best of my knowledge, no one does. Doing nothing and acting like it can’t impact you – or that you’re in a “safe zone” – is definitely not the answer.

 

I can tell you the answers start at home. I can tell you it continues at the schools. Infiltrating the mind of a child before they become addicted is a much less cumbersome task than trying to figure out the chemistry in the brain of an adult – young or otherwise – that is addicted.

 

The sad thing is that the epidemic may be more prevalent from a broken home and for those that didn’t acclimate to school, but there are a lot of prominent people – and you can see them anywhere whether it be in Bridgeport, Clarksburg Morgantown, Charleston and all points in between – that had the advantages of a good upbringing, schooling and a quality life that are slaves to the epidemic of usage.

 

Again, I don’t have the answers. I just want it to stop. No one’s anxiety should escalate at the simple words “prayer requested” on social media. God help us all.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo is an example of where too many cases involving drugs ultimately end, while Bridgeport Fire Department member Robert Moore, left, and Chief Phil Hart are shown in the middle with a nasal Narcan (Naloxone) device that is carried in all vehicles and used to revive heroin overdose victims in Bridgeport and their first response area. Bottom photo is a close up of the spray.