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AVON LAKE, OH (WOIO) –

After four heroin deaths in the last nine months Avon Lakes’ mayor is making it his mission that this suburban community has no more under his watch.

“Certainly our community cannot tolerate the loss of another young person,” Mayor Greg Zilka.

The coroner is reporting heroin deaths in Lorain County are almost triple what they were last year – a fact the mayor is well aware of.

“It is a crisis through out northern Ohio,” Mayor Zilka.

Experts say part of the boom in suburban heroin use could come from kids who steal their parents’ prescribed medication. After that runs out the kids are addicted and start using the cheaper heroin which is why many police departments have containers where the old medications can be dropped off and destroyed.

In fact the problem is now so bad there is a free clinic in Cleveland that hands out kits once a week that are designed to prevent heroin overdoses.

Michelle Fitch used one of those kits this week to save a 17 year old girl who overdosed on heroin.

“She was purple but I brought her back and she walked down the stairs,” said Michelle Fitch.

Avon Lakes’ mayor sees heroin use as a social problem that the can lead to an increase in burglaries and a decrease in property values.

SOURCE: 19ActionNews.com

Article and Picture Courtesy of WOIO 19 Action News

LOCAL: Avon Lake Mayor Wants to Put an End to Heroin Use in its Community  was originally published on wzakcleveland.com