seems to be that illegal drug use and the crimes related to this "epidemic" continue to increase over recent years. It is very disturbing to see how wide spread it has become, crossing age barriers, and leaving devastation in it's path..........

The Amish have a heroin problem. Its everwhere, including YOUR neighborhood.

I believe we need to re-open the mental health facilities and offer substance abuse rehab and get these people the help they need. Our communities would be alot safer. I don't remember all these problems arising when the facilities were open.

Every week the Middletown Police Blotter is basically all drug charges and all ages groups..it is an epidemic..

Muscenti was charged with possession of heroin, conspiracy to obtain heroin with Muscenti and Geerlof, and possession of heroin without a prescription..SINCE WHEN DO DR'S GIVE OUT PRESCRIPTIONS FOR HEROIN????

Ummm... heroin is basically a form of morphine a.k.a diamorphine which believe it or not, some dr. perscribe to get people off heroin..... I dont get it either. Fact is we have always had a drug problem in middletown..... the biiger problem is that most parents would rather pay the fines and hide their childrens guilt instead of making them face the music and forcing them to get help. Sorry tough love has its merits and it is high time we start allowing parents to be parents again instead of threatening to call DYPHIS (sp?) If you look at a kid the wrong way.

Time to stop be friends to our kids and start acting like parents! Not everyone is a winner...there are losers....and you need to be responsible for your actions!!!!!

This doesn't surprise me, I knew the Floyd kid, I went to middle school and elementary school with him. He was bad then,and he's bad now. People never change and I'm sad Middletown is becoming like the ghetto or something.

Drug dealers should be treated like terrorists and executed on sight. The damage they do to society and the lives they destroy are equal to any war. Exterminate them like the vermin they are.

Time to start talking to our kids about this problem because they know the dealers and users. We as parents can pass that info over to the authorities. It's time the PD makes a partnership with parents since the DARE program seems to be ineffective in nipping this in the bud. Until the dealers are pushed out there will be a problem and it's only getting worse.

so many bloodthirsty folks responding to this... there will always be people who want drugs, legal or not. Is alcohol a drug? I think so. Look at the chaos alcohol causes. Euthanize people on drugs? You'd be killing off the majority of our population. How about legalization? How about recognizing that there are always going to be those who cannot live without drugs and in those countries all over the world that have legalized these things, crime drops and those who need to be medicated get their medication. And while we're at it, how about reconsidering the double messages we send out to our young people: alcohol is ok but weed is a crime. Kids have no respect for those who send that message, they are not stupid. This is an issue that has no easy answer but for sure, bloodthirsty responses will solve no problems in our community.

Hey Joe, no one gets "smashed" from smoking pot. people get smashed from getting hammered at the bar. And how exactly would you feel if you were related to a drug-dealer/abuser? if they were your mother or father, or sibling, would you still want them to be killed off? consider what youre saying before you say it.

Be killed off?? People can change tht have the will and want to change. What needs to happen is when people see something say something or report it. Don't turn your head the other way and think It's going to disappear on it's own. Seems like the police are finally getting on some of the crime that happens here in Middletown. Long way still to go but atleast other people getting caught will put some sort of fear in others.

First off, to the idiot who said kill them all off. I guarantee if you exposed your life and world-view for the rest of these people to see, I bet you are a hate-spewing, cynical, closed-minded, low IQ neanderthal of a bumbling fool. Kill off the drug dealers and users, that's your genius idea to rid the streets of this opiate problem. Please, for the love of god, learn to listen to someone around you who loves you, because you are definitively too slow to be making decisions on your own.

Now, as far a solution, first we have to id the real problem, the root of the problem. HERE IS THE REAL ISSUE. The drug dealers are in business because they're day to day customers (i.e. real dope feigns, the ones who live close to the drug-dealers who no longer recall what real life is, or perhaps never had a real life to begin with) they're bread and butter are repeat life-long customers. These cold calculating drug-dealers are taking advantage of the fact that these people are essentially in their pockets. Now, what happens here, is one of these "lifers" moves here, has family here, and a naive 15 year old kid sees nothing but stars and Nirvana lyrics in his head and stumbles into the oldest war that's ever been fought. Now this kid has probably smoked weed, and he has definitely drank before; because no one who has NOT does these would DARE try heroin. right? Not exactly... The drug-dealers do not first hand someone a dirty needle filled with heroin. The first thing these kids get

is a PAINKILLER, an oxy, roxy, a blue, a grape, a thirty or whatever else cutesy name they assign to these medications. LISTEN TO THIS, I have even heard that they will sprinkle heroin onto weed or tobacco when selling "lucies" to slowly get the person hooked. Either way, attacking heroin is not the root answer. Heroin is what is done when painkillers get too expensive, too hard to find, not good enough of a high. In this well protected area, the roxys that made their way down from manhattan and the bronx to Newark and Elizabeth; have found their way to the Amboys and Asbury; and from here they have seeped into Middletown. And now, with the NJ PDMP, painkillers have become hard to come by, and those that are too far gone (addicted) are turing to heroin. And so, the first generation of the roxy users from this area, who are looked up to and admired by the younger children; are moving onto heroin; and in my eyes, this spells TROUBLE for the younger generation.
So what do we do now? This, just like the problem, is not as simple as Joe Schmo would like to think it is. Killing off the drug-dealers is obviously outside of the realm of reality, so what should be done.
First off, something needs to be done to combat the negative influences from opiate users from the previous generation that are having a strong impact on this generation.
Second, a beyond scared straight program that shows the 'future' for a user, needs to be utilized for those who are caught up. Show them exactly

wtf a 20 year user looks like, bring in a zombie looking user that needs a couple extra points with the cops, and show them what the future of dope use is like.

third, a lot of these kids will already be too far gone for any of the above treatments because they have already caught a habit. For them, a very, very different approach needs to be taken, and this needs to be careful and meticulous, and planned out by those who love this person. For these people, they need to go somewhere for NO LESS THAN 6 MONTHS. They have gone far enough where now, this is their life, for better or worse, opiates do provide them comfort. This is their security blanket, their way to hide from the cold truths of whatever their life might hold. To just rip it off and throw them back into the mix will not solve anything. 6 months is in my opinion the least amount of time that someone could spend before they realize what it is like to live life without opiates again. Also, rehabs need to fundamentally change, most rehabs, those who go in, they come out 5 days after they stopped the detox medication, they met 30 new kids who can get cheaper dope then they could, and because they just came off suboxone 5 days ago, they are still going through withdrawals and they call one of their new contacts and the floodgates are open again.

Only if these points are followed can anyone hope to survive this gripping disease. They are many more facets to this issue, it is not that simple