It's the time of year when our small-town ambiance appears particularly idyllic, when joggers and bike-riders are omnipresent and gardeners putter around in great profusion.
It's hard to imagine, then, that while kids are playing ball and couples stroll hand-in-hand in the park, that somewhere close by, someone is buying _ and using _ heroin.
Local cops and district attorneys say it's going on every day, and the problem is getting worse.
Long a scourge of our cities, heroin is a very bad and addictive synthetic opiate drug.
It kills people.
To name just a few prominent ones: Entertainers John Belushi, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, River Phoenix and baseball pitcher Eric Show.
According to the National Institute On Drug Abuse: "Heroin can be injected, snorted/sniffed, or smoked ... All three methods of administering heroin can lead to addiction and other severe health problems."
Yet, for whatever reason, more and more local people, particularly those in the 25-to-35-year-old age group, are putting this poison into their bodies.
"We're definitely seeing an upturn in heroin," Otsego County District Attorney John Muehl said.
"It's here," Otsego County Sheriff Richard Devlin said. "We are seeing it more. Heroin, for some reason, seems to be on the rise."
During May, the Oneonta Police Department made three arrests for hypodermic-needle possession. No arrests for that offense were made in the previous four months.
Just last week, three Oneonta-area women were arrested in Orange County after drugs _ including 169 packets of heroin _ were allegedly found in their vehicle.
On May 14, a 36-year-old Oneonta man who overdosed had to be revived at A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital. He didn't die, but he was charged with heroin possession.
Five days later, a 26-year-old woman was found dead in an Oneonta motel room. Police said heroin was a factor in her death.
"This is just the beginning, it seems, of a trend," said Lt. Dennis Nayor of the Oneonta Police Department. "This has our attention."
That's good to know, because while heroin doesn't appear to be a major problem on the high school level, it's only a matter of time until its inexpensive price will make it attractive to vulnerable children.
"Heroin is cheaper on the street than prescription medication," Muehl said.
A "hit" of the drug costs $15 to $20 and is typically packaged in 1-inch-by-1-inch wax paper squares, Nayor said.
There is only so much the police can do. The solution is vigilance _ and intervention _ by anyone who suspects a loved one is falling into a vicious and vile addiction.
