Reality check on drugs, crime

One tangible barometer of the direct link between drug abuse and criminal activity in our community can be gleaned from the year-end tally of indictments for Trumbull County. In 2014, prosecutors presented a record 999 cases to grand juries, 40 percent of which tied to illicit drug use, according to Trumbull Prosecutor Dennis Watkins.

Those sobering statistics serve as a reality check on the scourge of drug addiction in the Mahoning Valley and on the need for law enforcement, the criminal justice system and the social-service network to remain steadfast in their fight to lessen the scope of the plague.

The data are particularly disturbing when one considers that violent crime and property crime have been dropping in the state and nation. Even more disturbing is the subtext behind those raw numbers. It translates into armed robberies of store owners, brutal attacks against the elderly and even ghoulish sex crimes against children.

On a positive note, however, the record level of indictments indicates that local, state and federal law-enforcement and drug-control agencies acted aggressively to move more criminal users and pushers off the streets and into prisons and treatment programs. As the drug epidemic shows no sign of waning in 2015, it is imperative that such vigilance advance with added vigor.