Hamptons Heroin; Will it be Stopped?

The Blanket of Hamptons Heroin is slowly covering the east end. Eight years ago I wrote about the oncoming epidemic on Long Island and the story was killed because it was not what the advertisers (real estates brokers) of Dan’s Papers wanted to read about. I rewrote the article and Joe Shaw of the Southampton Press printed it somewhere deep in the paper. Thank you Joseph Shaw for having the guts to print it at all EIGHT YEARS AGO.

My point then and still is the target for the marketers (pushers) of the new Heroin of the 21-century was and still is the middle class white kids. Unemployed white post high school kids who are disillusioned with the way things are going. Perhaps Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have also tapped into this vein of anguish.

Over the last few years’ reports of heroin deaths were labeled; heart attack, natural causes or other veils, mainly because families wanted to protect the dignity of their deceased child. As a parent I understand that, however this behavior only emboldened the drug traffickers. With cheaper than cigarette prices for todays Heroin it is not bizarre that as beer and wine sales are receding Heroin sales are going up across the whole United States. Just recently both winners of the New Hampshire Primary, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, brought up the “out of control heroin epidemic in New Hampshire!!!!” New Hampshire is not known to have a measureable non-white population. My point is Heroin is now everywhere.

It’s easy money in a world where good paying jobs are dying. It’s just another example of crime paying off big time. I don’t blame the police for this problem, they have their hands full, but perhaps the Town Supervisors of Suffolk County have to address the stench of this unpopular situation more publicly despite the negative optics to their image of their towns. They would rather talk about CPF funds growing and better real estate numbers than hold Heroin Press conferences every other day, again bad political optics. Heroin is a national problem but it is also a family problem. If your son or daughter has a drug problem it affects the family economics drastically and can lead to the addicted child being tossed out of the home and sent out into the world to fend for themselves to support their drug problem. We all know where that leads.

So what can be done? My suggestion is to go after this problem publically like the world went after the HIV epidemic of the 1980’s with bullhorns blazing. Scare the truth into every one of all ages. You will die young in a painful ugly death.

Lastly the issue of the prescription drug industry’s control over the habits of a majority of mainstream America is a growing problem. This is the legal angle to the drug problem in America. To address this problem there is not enough space on any website. Someday, somehow all of us must make decisions about our personal habits. Education of the long-term effects of drugs should be blanketed hourly loudly all over the population of the United States and in the Hamptons. Otherwise the Heroin Blanket covering Long Island and the whole USA will smother out so many more lives. Bold local action must be taken otherwise things on this front will only get worse.