Residents Protest Heroin Distribution

VILLAS – The first annual Stop Selling Heroin Walk took place Nov. 23. Protestors walked from Lower Township Town Hall to North End Thrift Shop. The walk intended to target the people who sell heroin to local residents, not the people who use these drugs. Dozens of people walked down Bayshore Road expressing their concern for the drug problem in Lower Township.
Mariah Fishman attended the walk with her family in support of her sister. “She went to rehab and relapsed,” Fishman said. “She goes back to rehab on Tuesday.”
Cape May County is second behind Camden County in N.J. for drug use.
Christian Hosford, Jr. organized the walk for the community, having been personally affected by the heroin use in Lower Township. Hosford has seen heroin affect his biological father and friends. “Something had to be done,” he said about the current problem plaguing the community. Hosford is hoping to use the walk to let the users know that the community is behind them, supporting them. They also were looking to let the drug dealers know that Lower Township would not tolerate the drugs anymore. “The community has been ripped apart,” Hosford said.
Kevin Ison, a native to Lower Township and friend to Hosford said, “The way he (Hosford) organized it was with passion.”
Ison had recently come back from California. He said you do not realize how bad the drug problem is until you have lived somewhere else. “If everyone in your town was carrying a hammer you would not think it was strange until you left and saw that no one else was carrying a hammer,” Ison said. He stressed that the walk was all about looking within and the only thing a person can do to change the world is to change themselves.
Kathleen Alexander knows exactly what changing yourself is all about. She has been clean for the last seven years. “I fear for my children,” she said about the increase in drug use in younger children. Alexander has known six people who have died from drug overdoses and “it does not have to be the way.”
This is not the only event Hosford intends to host in order to raise awareness. He is also spreading his message to the dealers and users through the Stop Selling Heroin Facebook page to keep the cause fresh in everyone’s minds.
To contact Ashley Hoff, email ahoff@cmcherald.com.