(Shocking video in extended article from Rabbi Dr Abraham Twerski, posted a while back on TLS, talking about the addictions of Drugs, Internet Immorality and Alcohol and Gambling addictions). When people hear the word “heroin,” it’s apt to evoke images of drug deals going down on street corners and users shooting up in abandoned houses in big cities. But take a look at the hometowns of the 24 people who were charged last week with buying and distributing heroin in a Bayshore-based drug ring — Middletown, Little Silver, Holmdel, Hazlet, Matawan and Union Beach. Alleged ringleader Dectric Rawls was arrested at his home in Matawan. Police, who recovered nearly $300,000 in cash and about 100 bricks of heroin, say the ring moved $25,000 worth of the drug through the area each week.

Use of euphoria-producing heroin isn’t confined to urban centers. Last year, Monmouth County had the second-most admissions to substance abuse treatment facilities in the state — 5,334 — trailing only Essex County. Ocean County ranked fourth with 4,800 admissions. Heroin and opiates are at the top of the list of primary factors in admissions (41 percent) followed by alcohol (32 percent).

Three days after last week’s arrests, 36 other people were indicted in connection with a heroin ring that distributed $750,000 worth of heroin each week, in Asbury Park, Neptune, Ocean Township, Neptune City, Farmingdale, Brick, Lakewood and Toms River.

The war against hard drugs needs to be fought vigorously by law enforcement in the suburbs as well as the cities. And it needs to be fought at the kitchen table. “Every parent should assume that their child is being exposed to a drug culture,” said Ocean County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford. “They should educate themselves on the facts that there are drugs that are readily available.”

Young people know they can get heroin easily and cheaply at the Jersey Shore. Its cost has been driven downward by the ease with which South American drug cartels have been able to move large quantities into the U.S. through porous borders and the ability of gangs to distribute it more quickly and with fewer middlemen.

Those seeking it don’t have to travel to the state’s poverty-stricken spots to find it. It’s here. See full article in APP. (Mobile users click here to view video on youtube).