Opioid addiction has been a topic of news coverage in Lawrence County and our surrounding areas for a long time.

As our region has suffered more and more, and as the toll of deaths from overdoses have grown, the epidemic has attracted many stories from the costs of addiction, the courtroom cases, the personal toll it takes on families and the increased amount of time first responders must devote to the many different opioid emergencies.

The Tribune is working to try and help. We don’t want to just report on the court cases and crime that this addiction brings, we want to establish dialogue and steps to overcome this problem. We want to help fight this crisis. Opiate addictions do not discriminate by race, gender, age or economic background.

Starting this week, we will offer a series of stories that our team has been working on. We are reaching out through our area courtrooms, jails, and treatment facilities.

We will share stories from addiction specialists, judges and emergency medical personnel.

These stories are just a start of our coverage as over the next year, we will be holding public informational forums, talking with families who have dealt with this addiction first hand and showing you the heroes that continue to battle this terrible scourge. We invite you to help us on this journey.

Please feel free to reach out to us, as we work to establish a dialogue of information that, through time, can become a beacon of light and information so others can avoid the pitfalls of this menace.

 

Scott Schmeltzer is the publisher at The Tribune. To reach him, call 740-532-1441 ext. 211 or by email at scott.schmeltzer@irontontribune.com.