Sheila McLaughlin

smclaughlin@enquirer.com

Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser has a rather strange proposal for heroin addicts.

He wants at least 50 of them to meet with him privately for a confidential chat so he can understand more about what got them started.

Gmoser put the call out through a press release on Thursday and has already set up a hotline, 888-662-3673.

He said he's trying to find a way to get to the root of the heroin epidemic to help fix it.

"I'm tired of listening to the experts pontificate about what the problem is without ever hearing from the problem. I want to hear from the problem. The addicts obviously are the problem because the problem is what is causing crime," Gmoser told The Enquirer Thursday.

"I want to know why they turn to it and I want to know where they start at it. I'm sure there's an educational component to it. I know it. I can feel it."

Gmoser is not counting on his phone ringing off the hook. He figures most addicts won't trust him.

"They may not. They probably won't. I know it's a long shot," Gmoser said of the trust issue. "I'm sure that I'm going to get the cold shoulder from a large segment that this is some sort of prosecutorial ruse or a police agency ruse. I want to learn here. That's the deal."

Talking to the users could help provide some ideas on how to keep others from trying the drug, he said.

"If we don't change certain fabric issues in our society, we're just going to accept the fact that Mike Gmoser is going to have 41 indictments a month - of which 85 percent are involving heroin - and eight percent of the entire population is going to be on it and of that six percent are going to be going to prison," he said.

'If that's what we have to accept in this country, we might as well just shut the hell up and accept it."