The President has called this week Prescription Opioid and Heroin Epidemic Awareness Week. This is a national scourge that needs to end.

It begins by never doing it in the first place. There is nothing cool, sexy, or interesting about shoving a needle full of heroin into your arm. It ruins your body, your relationships, and your life.
And, if you share your needle with another person, you risk getting Hepatitis C and HIV. Diseases that should be gone, but because of unprotected sex and needle sharing, they continues to hospitalize and kill far too many people.

And on top of it all, there is a serious problem in places like Santa Cruz, California where not only is heroin killing people, the heroin addicts are leaving their used needles around town. In parks, on the beach, and elsewhere, unsuspecting people including children are getting stuck by the used needles, requiring expensive medical procedures because of the potential for contracting the aforementioned diseases.

Please stop glamorizing the opium poppy based drugs. Lets end the opioid and heroin epidemic.

Listen to The Ethan Bearman Show weekdays noon to 2pm on KGO 810 – www.kgoradio.com