Schools have vital role reining in heroin's reign of terror

All this week students at Spaulding High and Rochester Middle School have been involved in programs and projects raising awareness of drug abuse and the need for abstinence.

And we applaud their work and the work of Bridging the Gaps, Rochester's nonprofit that is a key player in fighting the drug epidemic.
When Nancy Reagan began her campaign "Just say No" to drugs decades ago many scoffed at its simplistic approach.
But with the opioid crisis plaguing New Hampshire and Rochester, there is no substitute for such a strategy.
While we agree that parental guidance is of the utmost importance in raising responsible young adults, we believe this is the time to leave no stone unturned, to use each and every strategy available to us as a society to tackle the opioid epidemic head on.
These days the dangers of drug addiction have to be intelligently served up to our youth.
With Maine and Massachusetts already legalizing marijuana and New Hampshire decriminalizing it, it is hypocritical for us to lump heroin and marijuana in the same nefarious category.
They are vastly different, but if you disagree, let's put that to the side for the moment.
The truth of the matter is that opioids bring about an addiction that is unlike any other.
The American Addiction Center states," Withdrawal from heroin may be like a really bad case of the flu, causing shakes, sweating, chills, nausea, vomiting, muscle aches, headaches, insomnia, runny nose, yawning, and tearing. Emotionally, depression, anxiety, agitation, irritability, and a lack of mental clarity may be common during opioid withdrawal."
One former heroin addict told The Rochester Voice she got hooked on oxycodone after she used it for an injury. She said when her prescription expired, she developed many of the symptom listed above and was miserable for weeks until she somehow realized it was withdrawals. Unable to fill her script, she began using heroin. Luckily she was able to kick the habit, but she admitted that monkey on her back is forever hanging over her.
Another heinous thing about heroin is that an amount that can potentially kill you isn't much more than the amount that you need to get a "high."
That's why safety officials right here in Rochester know that when word on the street points to a new virulent batch of heroin or fentanyl that has hit the area, be braced for a spate of overdoses, because users who hear about it will be seeking it our rather than trying to avoid it.
Rochester schools now teach students as far down as kindergarten about the dangers of drugs, and we fully support these efforts.
We believe most parents are already doing this at home, but we also know there are some who do not.
Our children's lives are far too precious to not give each and every one the knowledge - yes, beginning in kindergarten - that opioids, including heroin, fentanyl and carfentanyl, pose a singular danger to them and other young people.
Instead of "Just say no" one anti-opioid message might be "one and done" because for many addicts, that first high can never be repeated, so they keep searching for it.

Unfortunately for many, that search never ends until they're dead.