The message was strong and clear to folks who attended the town hall at the West Hills Community Church, heroin is a real problem in our communities.  It is not an issue for a specific age group, gender, or neighborhood.

Around 200 people filled the church for what many called an eye opening forum that addressed cracking down on the heroin problem, support systems, and recovery.

“I’ve been at the bottom of the barrel and I’ve felt like there’s no way up,” said Shane Streets, an addiction counselor.

Streets was a symbol of hope Sunday night.  He is a recovered heroin addict and now a counselor, something Debbie Gorzelsky hopes her son can strive for one day, “I got home one day and he had overdosed.  If I didn’t get home when I did, he would have died.  So we’ve been working with him.”

Gorzelsky said her son has been an addict for five years now.  He’s currently in jail, but she said he’s working to get better and become a productive member of society again, “He had a good job.  He had a home.  He had everything and heroin took it.”

To cope, she is a member of a Facebook group for parents of addicts.  She said she is not ashamed of her situation.  She came Sunday to hear what others had to say and to help folks share their story, “It’s not our fault.  We were brought into this from our kids and we want people to know we’re not ashamed.  We need to talk about this.  It can’t be shoved under the rug.  It’s not helping our children.”

According to the coroner, the youngest person to die of an overdose in Cambria County so far this year was 20-years-old and the oldest was 61-years-old.

Coroner Jeff Lees told the crowd he’s working with other officials to show teens not statistics about heroin, but the effects of the deadly drug, “We need to show first hand what can happen and the devastation.  We want to talk a little bit about stories of families and what they’ve been going through.”

Folks told us the town hall was a start.  They said we have a long road ahead, but feel addressing the problem and banding together is the first step in making progress.