Jul 30, 2015 3 min read

Police in Washington and Greene counties have often stated that almost all of the criminal activity here is drug-related. They say that thefts, robberies and burglaries are mostly perpetrated by people trying to support their drug habits, particularly heroin in recent years.

Much evidence supports the claims of these law enforcers. We need look no further that the pages of the newspaper for that evidence. A glance at the Police Beat in the Washington County and Greene County editions of the Observer-Reporter on Tuesday and Wednesday tells the tale:

• A 31-year-old man arrested in California Borough with 24 stamp bags of heroin

• A Charleroi woman, arrested on a number of charges including child endangerment, who was high on cocaine and marijuana

• A 27-year-old Donora woman arrested for possession of heroin

• A man, 27, who said he stole a cell phone to support his heroin habit

• A Washington woman, 39, caught with 239 stamp bags of heroin

• A South Franklin Township woman, 32, arrested with 50 stamp bags of heroin in her purse

• A 28-year-old Houston man charged with possession of cocaine

• A Washington couple, both 28, accused of theft, one of them taken to the hospital for a heroin overdose

• A Denbo woman, 30, arrested for theft of $410 from a truck parked at a Carmichaels supermarket, found with drug paraphernalia including syringes

• A South Franklin man, arrested for DUI and causing a head-on crash, also charged with heroin possession

• A 28-year-old from Washington, who also crashed his vehicle into another in a construction zone, found with drug paraphernalia in his vehicle

• And an Eighty Four man, 30, who overdosed on cocaine

Nine other items in the Police Beat on those two days involved theft and burglary. Can there be much doubt about the motives of the culprits in these cases?

Readers may also have noticed the irony of an article at the top of Tuesday’s front page about the efforts of some Cumberland Township residents to delay the construction of a drug treatment clinic in the Paisley Industrial Park. Really? In the midst of a heroin epidemic, we’re fighting the construction of methadone clinics? In industrial parks?

We have listed the ages of those arrested for a reason. Regular readers of the Police Beat most likely have noticed that most of the people who are using and dealing heroin, stealing to support their habit, overdosing and dying, are in their late 20s and early 30s, at the prime of life, when they should be society’s most productive people.

It may be possible that we are unable to see the forest through the trees. The trees in this case are all the heroin addicts; the forest is the things that caused these people to throw their lives away.

Certainly, we need to get serious about treating drug addiction, but the clinics we build will never run out of patients if we don’t address the problems that make deadly drugs so attractive; the proliferation and over-prescription of pain medication; the deterioration of families; the lack of job opportunities and income disparity; absence of work ethic, and other realities.

The pursuit of happiness is our right, but too many people confuse happiness with self-gratification.

When we say we want our children to be happy, we mean that we want them to feel satisfaction from their achievements, to enjoy the benefits of hard work, to be comfortable and content with their lives, to feel good about the happiness they bring to others.

If we can’t teach our children (and their parents) what happiness is, get ready to treat and bury another lost generation.