Heroin use has become a nationwide epidemic, and Bay County, Florida, is not immune.

Over the past month, the presence of heroin has made the news, like the sentencing of 32-year-old Stephen Martin Combs to 10 years in prison for charges including trafficking in heroin. He was arrested last year after the overdose death of Justin Roberts.

Authorities say the use of heroin here — increasingly laced with the synthetic painkiller fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 time more potent than morphine — waxes and wanes depending upon how successful they are in keeping dealers off the streets. But they are realistic and know that while the arrest of one dealer may slow the tide, it continues to rise.

Since March, heroin and fentanyl have claimed the lives of eight people in Bay County alone, with countless others being rescued from the edge of an overdose by emergency responders armed with antidotes, officials reported.

But the heroin surge is not unique to our region. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration estimated some 435,000 Americans used heroin in 2014 (the latest statistics available), nearly triple what it was just seven years earlier. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meanwhile, says 2 out of every 100 Americans are addicted to heroin, and last year more than 10,000 deaths nationwide were blamed on heroin overdoses. While Florida has a massive problem on its hands, Illinois and Ohio have been identified by the CDC as hot spots for overdose deaths.

Ironically, most experts say that the rise of heroin use and its associated deaths is a result of unintended consequences, linked in part to a government crackdown on the prescription opioids like Vicodin and OxyContin. When states such as Florida started cracking down on so-called pill mills and tracking doctors' dispensing of the prescription painkillers, those who had become addicted to the prescription painkillers turned to heroin as a similar and equally effective substitute. Plus, it is easily available and, amazingly, 80 percent cheaper on the street than the pain pills.

So what to do? Babies are being born addicted. Burglaries and other thefts are rising as addicts seek to feed their habits. The American Society of Addiction Medicine says drug overdoses are now the nation's leading cause of accidental death.

Certainly it is imperative that we have more treatment programs. Congress has authorized $181 million — far less than President Obama requested. But it is a start.

There also needs to be stepped-up public awareness and more access to overdose antidotes. Meanwhile, law enforcement like we have seen this month in our own area must continue to be aggressive.

Finally, while policymakers and police address the crisis, each of us should be vigilant in looking for signs of opioid abuse among friends and family. Because heroin use is more than an epidemic, it is increasingly a killer in our midst.

REPRINTED FROM THE PANAMA CITY NEWS HERALD