My name is Joanne Peterson, founder of Learn to Cope, a parents support group for families dealing with a loved one with an opiate addiction.

Our group started a little over two-and-a-half years ago and today our meetings are very large, standing room only. This is not good news. Every week it seems there are new heartbroken parents, mothers and fathers grappling with the news that their son or daughter is now addicted to heroin.

It used to be that it started with OxyContin. Now it starts with 70-80% pure heroin, which can be snorted and is so easy to obtain that it is being experimented by kids that you would be shocked to see using this stuff. And not long after that they are needle dependent and another family loses another young beautiful son or daughter who once had a promising future. These families could be your neighbors and I am certain you don't realize how easily you could become one of us.

I am writing this today because just this morning I heard of now another death, a young girl 18 who has battled this demon and now another family is planning her funeral.

In the past 8 weeks there have been 9 deaths so far of young souls from the suburbs—the most recent on Thanksgiving day and before that a young man who's mom is a member of LTC.

We have been out there for two and a half years testifying to legislators on Beacon Hill, planning forums and participating in forums, speaking at schools, talking to media and most recently to members of [Massachusetts's governor elect] Deval Patrick's transition team trying to get someone to care. We feel a glimmer of hope knowing he has this team out in the communities of the commonwealth to hear from the people who live in them and we are on the front lines in this epidemic and we will continue to be heard.

If these deaths were drunk driving and nine young people died in this short span of time there would be an uproar in the schools to get the word out not to drink and drive, or if nine people died from encephalitis within a nine-week period there would be an absolute panic and it would only take a few days to get the planes back out to spray again.

We as families who deal with this nightmare every single day feel abandoned and blamed and there is no community support during these times. We get nods and looks of pity but then those very people go home that night still believing it can't happen to their son or daughter and that it must have been something we did wrong.

We are in a panic because more and more young people who were brought up well, taught right from wrong, went to church, CCD, participated in sports, dance classes, graduated high school, etc., are dying a sad and slow death. Some have had to be plucked from college to go to detox (if a bed can be found) and many have died. Their parents and siblings are absolutely desperate to try and save them but the treatment access is close to impossible to deal with. Insurance refuses to pay for enough treatment. And private treatment is so expensive your normal, every-day, middle-class family has to second mortgage their home or sell off assets to afford it.

Who do you know that can afford to send their family member to treatment at the cost of no less than $1,000 per week and still take care of the rest of the family's needs, but we have done it because we had no choice...and there are no guarantees.

In the year 2005 in just two counties, Bristol and Plymouth, there were 29 young deaths. We can't imagine what the numbers must be for this year. If there have been nine in eight weeks just on the south shore, I am afraid to see what the numbers will be for 2006 for the state. Recently there was an article about six overdoses at an area hospital in a weekend. All survived. I can tell you that this is common and it happens every weekend because we hear about it at our meetings from the parents of some of those survivors. If you talk to emergency room doctors and nurses and EMT's and law enforcement officers, they can attest to this.

The south shore is taking a big hit right now, the death toll is climbing and we are begging the public to get involved and help us get this drug out of Massachusetts, We need to demand it at this point. Like we all say, heroin is not grown in the USA. Where is it coming from? Who is responsible for allowing it in? Why is it when one of our children die, people just say, "Oh well, they shouldn't have tried that, they are just drug addicts."

Well, as we all know, young people can make terrible decisions at times that can ultimately change their future no matter what they have been taught and no matter who their parents are. Please help us help Massachusetts youth. There is a deadly drug out there taking more and more young lives every week.

By the way, my son has been healthy and living a good life again now for almost two years out on his own and being a good citizen. I still today pray every single day he will remain alive and well. He is the true epitome of "second chances" because he was strong enough and lucky enough to survive.

Massachusetts families need your help— and they are not the families you think they are. They may be right next door.