Page 18 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • June 18, 2014 Dabbling with death The news was definitely not good. Prosecutors’ offices in four counties -- Bergen, Passaic, Morris, and Sussex – recently reported that they had arrested 325 suspects for possession of heroin. The arrests also brought in 32 guns and $65,000 in cash. Roughly 280 of those arrested were simply users, while the others were dealers who also use the drug. Some arrests also took place in Ridgewood, Glen Rock, Franklin Lakes, Mahwah, and demographically similar towns. “Heroin knows no boundaries of income, race, or gender,” said Wyckoff Police Chief Benjamin Fox. “It’s commonly known that heroin is available in Paterson. You can go down to Paterson and find heroin sold with brand names like ‘Yahoo’ stamped on the bag or named after athletes. If you like a particular brand, that’s the one you buy. It’s like a designer drug trade now.” The new heroin epidemic is also a designer death trade. Statistics report 21 Bergen County residents have died from heroin overdoses so far this year. This figure includes four Bergen County residents who were among the 20 who died in Paterson (Passaic County). Another five people died in Morris County. “Heroin is the deadliest drug there is,” Chief Fox said. “I’ve had crack addicts -- different drug -- tell me some of the junkies I have had dealings with in the past to see how the picture fit today, and how it might have changed. Joey was my first contact with heroin abuse and with the world of print journalism. Joey was the very bright son of two not very bright parents with less than high school educations who doted on him and let him do whatever he wanted. He had two college degrees from a reputable col- lege with a concentration in business and mathematics, and he worked his executive day job while he was loaded on heroin from dawn to dusk. “I’ve got great parents,” Joey said. “They stood by me through thick and thin, and I especially love my mother. But if I was on heroin and I heard somebody killing her in the next room, I wouldn’t even get up and look. That’s how powerful it is. When you’re on heroin, nothing else in the world matters to you.” “If you had it to do all over again, would you still try it the first time?” I asked. “If I had it to do over again, I’d start in high school and stay stoned for the rest of my life,” he said. Waldo was somewhat different. His father was an alco- holic, as Waldo had been before he graduated to heroin. His wife was also an addict and he used to pimp her so they could both stay high. I suspect they saw themselves as the stars of a sort of reality video lifestyle: “What I Won’t Do for Dope? Nothing!” “When I really needed a fix, I used to steal televisions while the guy was watching,” he once told me. “How is that possible?” I asked. “It’s easier than you think. A lot of people around here leave their doors open in the summertime, so you look it and check out the television. If it’s a good one, you bust through the screen door, rip off the television, and run for it. Nobody expects anything like that, and by the time the guy gets his act together and does anything, you’ve got the TV in the trunk and you’re driving out of town, nice and slow so the cops don’t spot you.” I never saw him do this because, to me, the term “accessory” was defined as something other than a brief- case, but it was the thought that counted. Heroin is processed by international cartels that har- vest the tar of poppies in places like Afghanistan, Paki- stan, Mexico, Columbia, and Vietnam and process it into that white or brown powder. The people who raise the poppies and process the heroin do not appear to love America. On a personal level, I note that people who are serious about their religious values have less of a problem with dabbling in drugs that those whose beliefs are amorphous or non-existent. Beyond that, drug abuse appears to be a matter of circumstance. Kids are peer-grouped almost to death and cannot imagine a life without their temporary friends, and the trend seems to be a nine-to-six school day so parents can work two jobs each to pay the property taxes. The ideal kid will “just say no to drugs,” but few kids are ideal. Unless people forget about conspicuous consumption -- in this case, consumption of narcotics - - and focus on building mutual trust and values within the family, the War on Heroin might be another war we cannot win and cannot afford to lose. Area Firefighter receives grand prize ‘Heroin! I wouldn’t touch that stuff! “To a heroin addict, the only important thing in the world -- more than family, health, or reputation, is, ‘Where do I get that fix?’ I’ve talked to people right here in town whose kids were A students, no trouble in school, and then...” Some students report -- perhaps with a certain adoles- cent braggadocio -- that they can buy any drug they want in northwest Bergen County high schools, but Paterson is now the ultimate source. The first pusher is not some thug in a dirty raincoat or a black leather jacket. It could be the boy or girl next door. “Kids go to what they call ‘pharming parties’ -- not farming with vegetables, but as in ‘pharmacy.’ They put a bowl on the table full of prescriptions drugs and you just put your hand in the drugs and you can take whatever you want,” Chief Fox explained. “Medical painkillers are based on opiates, and if they become addicted to opiates they soon find out how expensive it is. I’ve heard that prescription drugs cost about $1 per milligram, so if you have a habit where you need 80 milligrams to stay high, that costs you $80 a day. Once you’re addicted at a higher tolerance, you can’t afford the pills. It’s a lot easier to find a heroin dealer on the corner than it is to find a doctor who will write you a prescription for opiates. “It’s incredibly difficult to get out of the cycle. There is no such thing as an effective rehab for 30 to 60 days. Effective treatment, if it actually works, takes one-and-a- half to two years, and then there’s no guarantee. It’s cost prohibitive. Junkies tend to hang out with other junkies, so once they’re clean they may not stay that way.” Considering this expert advice, I thought back to Arlene Putterman, communications manager, Stop & Shop Metro New York Division (left) and Mary McCauley, Stop & Shop Waldwick Store manager (center), presented the $10,000 check to Franklin Lakes volunteer firefighter David Rohner. David Rohner, a volunteer firefighter in Franklin Lakes, recently received a $10,000 check from Stop & Shop – the grand prize in the Triple Winner contest dedi- cated to fighting pediatric cancer. Rohner, a father of a three-year-old, made a contribution at the checkout counter at the Stop & Shop in Waldwick. He put the scratch off ticket in his pocket and forgot about it for more than a week. One day, while filling up at his local gas station, he came across the ticket, scratched off the three windows, and was stunned to realize that he had won the $10,000 grand prize. The 37-year-old Rohner, who has been a volunteer fire- fighter for over 19 years, said he frequently makes dona- tions at the checkout counter or drops loose change into the collection boxes of local charities that solicit outside the supermarket, but never dreamed he would personally benefit from his charitable giving. Triple Winner supports the fight against pediatric cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and provides children with in-depth intellectual and emotional support to help them adapt to their lives post-treatment. Stop & Shop has raised over $67 million through the Triple Winner Game, and more than $13 million has been raised for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center since 2001.