6 | | The H

Heroin Right in Your Own Backya

Lara Strydom
the three communi- wealthy suburban area beginning of their ad- never make such a bad
Welcome to Al- ties, lending to the like Alpharetta may diction. They want decision, Frederick
pharetta: the perfect Triangle moniker. seem like an unlikely something new; there- Ivey, AHS Resource
affluent suburban Although the heroin target for a heroin epi- fore, the gateway for Officer, said.
neighborhood pro- triangle has been a demic, it happens to heroin is wide open. But how are
tected from addic- problem for years, the be the most vulner- Typically it all they going to get the
tion and drugs by public has only grown able victim. Affluent starts off with popping heroin? Easy. First of
the enormous safe- aware of it and recog- teenagers in suburban those pills to study for all, the suburban area
ty-proof bubble sur- nized it recently with- areas are most likely those AP courses and is relatively close to
rounding the com- in the past year. to be able to afford a to obtain an abundant the huge drug hot-
amount of informa- spot of Atlanta,
tion in a short period so they are not
Jeremy Campbell from 11Alive News.

of time, which then far from con-

leads to the ultimate nections. On
sacrifice: a poor deci- top of that,
sion in thinking you w e l l - o ff
need this drug and
ALPHA
that you wont be ad-
dicted to heroin, you
are only doing it for
the moment. It can be
hidden from parents
for an extended peri-
od of time, especially
those parents that
have ultimate trust
that their son or
daughter would

11alives investigation on the heroin triangle provided for more public awareness as to what the
triangle actually is.

munity. Or so some When people find

people think. out about it [the Her-
In reality, Al- oin Triangle] they ig-
pharetta, along with nore it because they
the Johns Creek and dont want to know Marietta
Marietta communi- about it because they
ties, has been fac- do not want to believe
ing a deadly, yet its actually happen-
quiet heroin problem ing. I think one of the
among millennials reasons people are so variety of prescrip-
for years. This phe- surprised is people tion drugs they think
nomenon has been think, That would they might need, such
referred to as The never happen in Al- as antidepressants.
Heroin Triangle. pharetta, that would Eventually, some of
The 11 Alive inves- never happen in Mil- these teenagers be-
tigative team fo- ton. They think, That come addicted to the
cused on this trend might happen in some prescription drug, de-
and found that the bad neighborhoods, veloping a stronger
majority of heroin- but not in our neigh- and stronger toler-
related deaths north borhood. But that is ance for the prescrip-
of Atlanta were most just not true; its hap- tion drug as their ad-
concentrated be- pening everywhere, diction furthers. Thus
tween Johns Creek, Robin Elliot, Georgia making it more dif-
Alpharetta, and Mar- Overdose Prevention ficult for them to get
ietta, thus forming Co-Founder, said. the same kind of high
Heroin is the drug of choice for many in the Alpha
a triangle between Although a they received in the
HOOK 7

ard: Do you live in the Triangle?

suburban teenag-
ers are more likely
to have the transpor-
tation they need to
drive out and get the
heroin without their
parents knowing. But
in most cases today,
people dont even
need to drive out
to these hotspots.
right to their home. in our school because organization, Geor- citizens have been
These drug they all think that is gia Overdose Preven- active against it;
problems in wealthy never going to hap- tion, works to spread however, the 11Alive
suburban areas are not pen in their backyard. awareness about the team claims that the
limited to Alpharetta, It may happen in other law, which states that triangle has actu-
Marietta, and Johns places, but not there. in the case that some- ally become worse
Creek, but have grown And I think that is one body overdoses, any- within the past year.
into a national issue. of the reasons why it body in their presence With that in mind,
According to Offi- [the heroin triangle] can call 911 and nei- the 11Alive team has
cer Ivey, the large in- has been able to creep ther they nor the per- released an updated
crease in heroin use

Robin Elliot from Georgia Overdose Prevention.

They can put among teens started
$20 under the about five years ago.
mat, and the Additionally, in 2016,
dealer will 11Alive reported that
deliver it in the past 6 years, the
ARETTA amount of heroin-re-
lated deaths in Fulton,
Gwinnett, Cobb, and
Dekalb had increased
by 3844%. Yet, de-
spite the stakes, many
people still fail to ad-
dress the issue.
I think every
parent says not
my kid. Every
school says not

Robin Elliot, along with several other parents who had lost their children to a heroin addiction, marched
around the Georgia Capital for 39 days for the Good Samaritan Law, which was passed April 24th, 2014.
.

son overdosing can be investigative series

Johns
Creek
out, Elliot said.
Ordinary people
like Robin Elliot,
who have lost their
children to heroin,
have worked to fight
against the growing
heroin problem. She,
along with other par-
ents who had lost their
children to a heroin
overdose, marched
around the Georgia
capitol for 39 days to
get the Good Samari-
tan Law passed, which
was enacted statewide
aretta, Johns Creek, and Marietta area.
in 2014. Today, her
arrested, charged, or
prosecuted.
No parent or child
wants to be the first
person in this com-
munity to say, My
child made a mistake,
now let me possibly
save your child from
the mistakes my child
made. The harsh re-
ality is that actually
dealing with the ef-
fects of heroin on a
family is very hard,
and to go and spread
the word when there is
a personal experience
involved is even hard-
er to do, Ivey said.
It may seem natu-
ral to assume that the
amount of heroin prob-
lems has decreased,
considering that more
on the triangle to let
the public know that
the fight against her-
oin is not over yet.
One year ago,
we uncovered a stun-
ning 4000% spike in
the number of heroin
related deaths over
the course of 5 years.
Today--those num-
bers are still at re-
cord highs in an area
we call The Triangle.
Weve been tracking
the overdoses, and
the triangle is ex-
panding. Were go-
ing back to this story
to show how the area
affected by heroin
has grown, Jeremy
Campbell, 11Alive
reporter, said.