Simi Valley is the Poltergeist-like home of idyllic tract houses and sun-browned hillsides.

It also became notorious as an arms-length refuge for LAPD families in 1990s as the city recovered from the riots.

In other words, it's the upper-middle-class 'burbs. To the Nth.

Except that the place has had a “rash” of heroin overdoses, often among teenagers.

KTLA News reports that there have been about five deaths and another 22 surviving overdose victims connected to heroin in the last 18 months.

 

The deaths all involved men in their 20s, authorities say, but many of the survivors are teens. Drug counselor Jesse Finkbeiner says:

We see 14, 15, 16-year-olds addicted to heroin, mainlining heroin, using injections to get high off heroin.

And cops tell the station there's been an acceleration in heroin incidents in 2011. They want to find out where it's coming from.

Jeez people, this isn't 1992. The music's much better. And marijuana is practically legal. Put the needles down.

[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]

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