Letter: Police lax in chasing opiates
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo speaks about heroin addiction and drug use during a news conference at SUNY Old Westbury College on Wednesday, June 11, 2014. Credit: Daniel Rader
I'm glad that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is getting involved in cleaning up the opiate addiction epidemic ["Raising stakes in heroin fight," News, June 12]. He called Long Island a "ground zero" and assigned state troopers to narcotics work.
It's too bad that the Suffolk County Police Department has been unable and unwilling to more vigorously address this calamity.
I have a family member in the grips of an opiate addiction, and I offered the police a cellphone with information (texts messages) that would have led to several local dealers. Five years later, I know these dealers are still peddling their poison.
Until we take these dealers off the street, this problem will continue to rob the lives of what could be wonderful, productive people.
Not only are police pathetic, but our prosecutors and judges have failed to see the dealers' terribly destructive actions. The punishments for peddling opiates are far too soft.
Kevin Niles, Brightwaters
