Despite the efforts of area educators, law enforcement and medical personnel, the death toll from drugs continues to climb in Tippecanoe County as area residents succumb in increasing numbers to the suffocating grip of addiction.
Accidental drug overdoses killed more people here last year than in any of the previous 20 years, according to the findings of a report compiled by Deputy Coroner Matt Wietbrock. And Coroner Donna Avolt said a preliminary review of this year's deaths suggests the region is on pace to tie 2013's unprecedented high.
That uptick is far more than a statistical phenomenon for the families left behind.
Brayden Ely, 18, said he and his uncle used to be close. They'd fish and hunt together regularly and talk openly about the evils of drug abuse.
"You'd've never known, if you were to meet him, that he had a problem or an addiction," Ely said.
But his uncle, Daniel Knowles, was in deep and died in 2011 at age 28 after taking heroin one last time.
His lethal high was one of 18 accidental drug overdose deaths investigated locally that year. The figure jumped to 28 last year.
Avolt said one of the most striking facts about the local drug epidemic is that affluence offers no immunity.
"This is crossing all socioeconomic boundaries," she said.