Butler County, Ohio is located in the far southwestern part of Ohio, adjacent to the Indiana state line. The county seat is Hamilton, and the 2010 census reported the county population as 368,130 residents. It is home to Miami University, an Ohio state public university. It is also home to a heroin abuse problem.
An Innovative Plan
A recent online article on Cincinnatti.com featured the innovative plan being proposed by Butler County Prosecutor, Mike Gmoser. It is his intention to take effective action to help prevent Ohio teenagers from becoming heroin addicts.
In May of this year, Gmoser had spoken to dozens of heroin addicts. He set-up a hotline, and put the word out through the media, asking for recovering addicts or heroin addicts to meet with him on a confidential basis to talk with him about what got them started using drugs.
According to Gmoser, heroin-related cases accounted for 85 percent of cases coming through grand juries, prompting him to find a way to diminish the epidemic use of heroin which has claimed 64 lives to date this year alone.
Gmoser talked with dozens of addicts, resulting in the initiative he is hoping will take hold in private and public schools in Butler County.
Finding the Reason
When talking with the addicts who responded to his request, Gmoser found that many had gotten hooked on heroin after taking opioid painkillers as a result of a legitimate injury; or fallen into the trap of addiction in their efforts to escape abuse suffered as a child.
A common thread shared by the addicts was that no one had told them how deadly the drug heroin really is.
When unveiling his initiative to the group of approximately 25 attendees which included drug-addiction officials, school officials and state legislators, Gmoser let them know that the addicts told him that nobody had explained to them that heroin would “take us, shake us and kill us.”
Gmoser hopes that by using his “bully pulpit” (public office of sufficiently high rank that it provides the office holder with the opportunity to speak out and be listened to) as a prosecutor, he can make that information known as a preventative measure.
The Guardian Program
Gmoser’s innovative plan for educating students includes peer-counseling between students; and may include addicts sharing “in-your-face” stories as to the realities of heroin use and addiction at school assemblies where he plans on speaking.
The prosecutor says his goal is the offering of a program similar to pre-prom events held at the schools which are designed to discourage students from driving while under the influence of alcohol. These programs use the peer-counseling approach, with kids teaching other kids how to avoid alcohol.
In Gmoser’s anti-heroin program, “guardians” in each grade at school will be responsible for counseling another student one grade down. The students will be paired-up by the school, and will be required to meet four times during the school year to talk together about family problems, emotional issues and any pressure they are experiencing to engage in drug use.
Gmsoer worked with the Alcohol and Chemical Abuse Council of Southwest Ohio to create the initiative and says it is his shot at attacking the problem of rampant heroin addiction; and that “education is key.”
The initiative also includes providing every graduating senior with a certificate which they can use in their job or college resumes. School affiliations of future drug offenders will also be tracked by the prosecutor’s office as a measure to identify schools in need of more attention.
Gmoser’s proposal would need to be adopted by school districts prior to it being presented to students, but he is definitely on the right track in moving forward to implement effective drug education as a preventative measure.
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