It’s amazing what a community can get used to.
The Journal-Tribune recently looked back at the last decade in local news. We looked at the top 10 ranked stories of each year back to 2010 and ran a story about the trends we saw.
Not too many surprises on the list – growth, schools, hospital, Honda. There was a lot of good news and that’s not surprising. The last 10 years in Union County, and for most of the counties surrounding Columbus, have been very prosperous. The capital city has done a good job of aligning itself with the technology sector and the region has benefitted.
Marysville and Union County became synonymous with growth, as the area topped the state in rate of growth for a while, falling back to number 2 behind Delaware earlier this year.
All-in-all a great decade around these parts, but far from perfect.
On today’s front page is a story listing the Top 10 stories from each of the last 10 years. We felt people might want a short trip down memory lane to show what we looked at when developing the decade trend story. Along with all the positive news were a smattering of things like murders, suicides and firebugs.
But one of the top trends from 2000-2010 barely cracked the list this decade – heroin use. The only mention of heroin arrests was the number 9 story back in 2010.
I’ve written columns about the scourge of Union County heroin many times. It’s the worst crisis I have seen in the area since I started working for this paper in 1990. The sticky fingers of heroin addiction are at the root of many other problems in the community. Petty theft, suicide and overdose rates all climb on the back of heroin.
Look at Thursday’s front page story about numerous thefts from vehicles. Law enforcement officers will tell you that theft of change and low value items from vehicles is often carried out by heroin addicts looking to fund their next cheap high.
I know from 2000-2010 heroin arrest roundup stories sold out our newspaper boxes. People couldn’t believe the drug, once believed to be only a big city problem, was here. Local residents assumed the addicts were new to the area, bringing urban problems to the land of small-town values. People wanted to see the faces of these outsiders suspected of using and selling heroin in back alleys.
But in this most recent decade, we learned that everyone knows those faces. They are home grown, rather than anomalies. They are your neighbors and coworkers. The drug has resulted in overdose deaths in the poorest and richest of circles. No one in immune and most residents know someone who has been touched by the problem in some way.
For something to be newsworthy is has to be fresh. News should make people think and be somewhat enlightening.
Well, in the last decade, the eyes of Union County had already been opened to heroin. It was no longer shocking to see heroin arrests in headlines. This doesn’t mean the J-T stopped covering them, but the impact was diminished. Our box sales on days with a heroin headline confirm this. I can tell you, right now, that a headline about meth will probably receive greater attention than one about heroin.
In short, heroin doesn’t move the needle in Union County anymore and that is a sad statement. Heroin use is now in the range of things we find normal – like blocked train tracks, potholes and gray skies.
It’s sad to have watched Union County lose some of its innocence in that regard.
-Chad Williamson is the managing editor of the Journal-Tribune.