Nassau initiative takes aim at heroin 'epidemic'

Officials hope a new poster campaign will help raise awareness about increasing heroin abuse across Long Island.

Dozens of Nassau County community members, police officers and county officials gathered in Massapequa Friday to talk about a rising number of young people who have become the drug's latest victims. The event at Manor East catering hall, "Stand Up Against Heroin," was part of a new initiative to distribute more than 50,000 posters donated to the county by several companies.

Officials say heroin use has increased dramatically across the Island.

Nassau Police Deputy Chief John Capece, who attended the event, said the meeting was aimed at building partnerships across the county.

"Drug dealers don't respect boundaries, school districts, or village lines," he said. "Heroin is not an inner city problem but a suburban problem that we want to solve."

Cara Librach, 21, a senior at C.W. Post, said she lost a friend to heroin two years ago and remembers watching a once-popular girl turn into a shell of her former self.

"It's a shame that people are killing themselves," she said, adding heroin "is all over Long Island and it doesn't have a face. It could be anyone."

The new posters will be put up at local shopping centers and businesses in Nassau.

Shelley Bradley, 53, a Hempstead mother of two said parents must educate themselves and reach out to their children about the dangers of addiction. "If we're ignorant to this we won't know how to respond," she said.

There have been 284 heroin-related arrests this year, up from 177 arrests this time last year, Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano said. There were 48 heroin deaths in the county last year.

"We can and we will stop this epidemic," he said."We are in this as allies," said Art Rosenthal, executive director of Confide Counseling & Consultation Center in Hempstead. He said he hopes the posters will get people talking about heroin's tightening grip on Long Island. "We consider this a crisis," he said. "I think the more publicity. . . the better."

Caitlin Donach, 22, a senior at Molloy College, hopes she and other young people can begin talking to students around the Island about the dangers of addiction.

Heroin, she said, "is like a silent monster."

The new posters may help, she said, but that personal conversations are most important. "It's not about putting up a pamphlet," she said. "It's about talking about it."