A Growing Problem in Rural Ohio

As I sit in my room, glancing over notes from my classes, I can't help but feel compelled to write about a growing problem in this state. Currently I attend a university for higher learning in Southeastern Ohio and being a student from another part of the state it's quite a culture shock to be here.
I've been attending college in this area for three years now and most of the time I've experienced some very stimulating and exciting times but there's a dark underbelly in this town I now I call home. Heroin.
Recently, heroin has had a resurgence in this part of the country and specifically in the town of Athens, Ohio. My roommate informed me this evening that his friends had their house broken into numerous times, losing several items, including some computers and a bike. The fact that they had their house broken into about three times makes me wonder if they know how to use a lock but more importantly it's a statement on the desperation seething throughout this town, the desperation to acquire wealth to pay for an unending addiction to heroin. My roommate said that apparently one of them awoke in the early morning to a man looking in through their window into the living room. Police were called, a big scene was made, and then it was made very clear by the police why their house had been targeted numerous times by theives; heroin.
I'm concerned as a student and a citizen of this small town in Appalachian Ohio, not for my safety, but for our society at large. I've never been one to ever support the war on drugs, which most of the time is used to target minorities and lower income areas in America, but you can't help but feel as if the growing dependence on drugs is a symbol of our turbulent times.
The ability to escape reality is what these drugs offer, the ability to ease the mind from daily struggles, particularly the housing crisis and the growing unemployment across the country. Ohio, as some may know, is one of the hardest hit states in the Union by growing unemployment and foreclosure. My home city of Dayton, particularly, a few years ago had the highest amount of foreclosures on houses. This is the world we live in now, as a young American, we inherit the soil, the land, the views and perspectives of earlier generations but we most certainly and unequivocably inherit their problems and failures. We must rise up now, together as Americans, no longer letting ourselves succumb to apathy and depression, declaring, "there's nothing we can do," that's bullshit, wake yourselves up and start making changes immediately. Start at the local level and work your way to the top of the heap.
As Americans, we can't sit idly by and let our brothers and sisters suffer and die because of the growing burdens and problems in our nation, we must be one, together.