It’s been 166 days since we released, “Losing Dylan: A mother’s story” and nothing’s changed. Heroin is still a prevalent and grave epidemic on a local and national scale.

“Losing Dylan” was a first-person narrative The Kent Stater published at the end of last semester. Juli Stone is a mother who lost her child to a heroin overdose in March, and she shared her story with Ian Flickinger-Galeza, a now-graduated Stater reporter. Readers saw firsthand what heroin does to an individual, a family and a community.

The reaction was overwhelming: This is an epidemic we have to stop. The only way to organize change, however, is to start a conversation. And one story isn’t enough. That’s why we’re running an extended series on the heroin epidemic in this week’s Stater issues. We aren’t doing this to raise our readership or sensationalize; We want to confront an issue and spark dialogue among readership.

After the series concludes Thursday, we hope to continue to cover heroin in the community throughout the duration of this semester. These are frankly difficult and heartbreaking conversations, but something — somehow — has to change. Nothing will unless this dialogue is ongoing.