Fighting a moving target

Gazette Editorial Board

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A rash of local heroin-related deaths is a sad reminder that our fight against drug abuse is a perpetual one.

Each generation must be taught the dangers of highly addictive drugs such as heroin. Law enforcement and treatment providers must remain on guard to help keep this major public health and public safety concern under control.

The problem's maddening persistence sometimes tempts one to ask: “Why keep wasting precious resources to fight a war we'll never win?”

But while there is no end-all cure for the scourge of drug abuse and addiction, that doesn't mean the battle isn't worth fighting.

As the recent deaths of 25 heroin users in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City show, our diligence in containing the use and distribution of harmful street drugs can be a matter of life and death.

Law enforcement officials have identified 22 heroin overdose deaths in Cedar Rapids within the last 22 months, and three others in Iowa City in the past 12 months, alone.

They say the drug is enjoying a resurgence in popularity in Eastern Iowa, in part, because of its relative affordability and plentiful supply.

Increasingly, Iowa users - mostly young adults in their mid-20s - are injecting and snorting heroin imported from Mexico through Chicago.

Unpredictable levels of potency combined with a quickly developing physical tolerance to the drug can lead to a tragic end.

Heroin users still represent only a tiny fraction of all drug users in Iowa, but the drug's increasing popularity underlines the frustration of fighting and tracking such a moving target.

“There's a certain amount of, for lack of a better term, battle fatigue that does set in,” Dale Woolery, associate director of the Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy, told us Monday.

That's due, in part, to the mistaken idea that the war isn't won until we've completely eradicated substance abuse and distribution.

“It's more of a health issue,” Woolery told us. “It's not a combat issue. We need to change the way people think.”

Drug abuse is a preventable behavior, and drug addiction is a treatable disease, but fighting drug abuse requires “vigilance and ongoing effort,” Woolery told us.

“What we want to do is reduce the odds, to the greatest degree possible, that anybody would ever start down that slippery slope,” he said, and make sure interventions are in place to increase the chances that they'll get the help they need to stop abusing drugs in the event that they do.

But there is no panacea - no ultimate battle plan. We never will be finished.

No matter what the dangerous flavor of the month, the effort to fight drug abuse and trafficking requires consistent, persistent work and education.

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