Anyone that can even spell chemistry knows that heroin is very closely related to Oxy and Vicodin. The problem is we treat them differently because of who makes the drug. If you are hooked on Oxy you can just as well be hooked on heroin. Pretty much the same impact to your body as long as the heroin is made clean and not cut with other poisons. Do you best to stay away from all of these drugs unless really needed. Way too many folks hooked on opiates these days.

"At school, she found it easy to get prescription pills like Adderall, OxyContin and Vicodin." Wow! No wonder the students at Westonka HS say Mound is an acronym for, "Most Of Us Need Drugs."

imagine all the taxes we could collect if we legalized it! Just imagine all the new revenue that we could use for more entitlements!

It is legal. It is taxed. Oxy and the other perscription pills are easy to get through legal means and then stolen or sold to the streets. We need to crack down on who is getting this stuff legally and stop the pill shopping.

Good Lord. Heroin? Again? When I first moved to The Cities in the mid-80s, I had never encountered the stuff. Then, in about '89-'91 or so, I ran into a bunch of disaffected suburban kids hanging out on the West Bank, who were getting heavy into heroin. I couldn't believe it. Did anybody not know that stuff kills you? Well, a few of them died; some from overdoses, some from AIDS and other blood-borne killers.

What was interesting, in a morbid way, was how much appeal it had to messed-up rich kids. The poor kids I knew, who were living very marginally, stayed away from the stuff as they seemed to weigh the risks a lot more heavily.

I have a younger brother in rural Northern MN who, as an attorney doing a lot of family law, has had to deal a lot with the aftermath of meth addiction. That stuff is the rare drug that is actually worse than all the propaganda.

I have known people who got caught up in oxycontin and other heavy-duty prescription drugs, and one of the problems caused by that wave of addiction is that people legitimately in severe, chronic pain are now routinely undermedicated.

But heroin? Wow. This is terrible. It seems to come back every 20 years, right about the time everyone who survived the last bout of it has either died, forgotten, or grown past the stage in life where people dabble in these things.

Some communities and school districts are indeed fighting back! Sadly, Mound Westonka is not one of them. The administration there, puts all their effort into denial and coverup. Don't believe me? Review Ms. Hanus' comments in the article. Nothing has changed there since she was getting hooked. Two students OD'ed on heroin right before Thanksgiving, with one nearly dying. Two weeks ago, a dealer was led out of the HS in handcuffs. With one of the highest paid superintendents in the entire state, you would think they would be generating solutions instead of lip service.

Prescription drug companies are the pushers. They convince doctors, who should know better, that any pain must be treated. This leaves thousands of these opiates in medicine cabinets that weren't really needed. Free drugs from parents gets kids hooked. Or if a patient takes them for their pain, they find getting off the painkillers is worse than the original problem. Time to find another gullible doctor.

When zulk left and hand picked borg, Westonka's fate was sealed in all aspects. As drug use has roared out of control and the district has fallen further behind its peers academically, "the chief" seems to be only concerned with padding his monsterous salary and benefit package at 10% per year and spending more and more money on novelties like upgrading his administrative castle.

Yikes. I remember hearing about studies that heroin actually changes your brain chemistry once you take it. I tell my kids to steer clear of all drugs - but I make it a point to make sure they understand how truly damging heroin is.

Back when I was a drug-using high school punk back in the seventies, heroin scared the crap out of me. I did a lot of "recreational" drugs, but heroin? Never. I learned from the heroin addicts of the previous generation that this stuff was NOT to be messed with. I guess I had put a value on my veins and teeth over a cheap high that starts with vomiting. It's too bad that there is this new generation of junkies.