I’m standing on Debby Thrasher Smith’s front porch in Ravenna, tightening my trench coat around my waist. The four wind chimes behind me are knocking delicately against each other, and their tinkling...

When one enters Judge Becky Doherty’s courtroom, the first word they see is 'hope.'It rests on her desk at Portage County's Court of Common Pleas, painted on a purple rock and spelled out on a wooden...

Sitting in my room, I hear a door downstairs shut. For some reason, I feel my heartbeat quicken and a faint dropping sensation in my stomach. Dread sets in, just over a roommate leaving for class.It’s...

Jonny Szczesniak was nine when he tried heroin for the first time.He was at a friend’s house after wrestling practice when his friend began breaking down the drug on a table, then snorting it.“I was...

The heroin epidemic is hitting Ohio, and it's biting back harder than ever. All over social media this week were the gruesome pictures of a couple in East Liverpool who had overdosed on heroin, a young...

I was sitting in Reagan National Airport, waiting for a flight back home to Cleveland last spring when my phone buzzed. The screen read "Joshie".It takes a certain amount of mental preparation to open...

Before you decide to stop reading this column because I called a skit about heroin funny, let me explain.  Last week’s episode of Saturday Night Live contained a skit called “Heroin AM,” which depicted...