MASSENA -- The Massena Drug Free Coalition will host a “Let’s Take Back Our Community” forum with Police Chief Mark LaBrake Sept. 23 at the Massena Community Center.

LaBrake and other members of the coalition will answer the public’s questions on the “trends, abuse and implications of street-level drugs such as marijuana, prescription drugs and heroin on the Massena community,” according the coalition.

LaBrake will outline effots of law enforcement to help fight drug use and how to get help for addicts.

Coalition members will be on-hand with one-on-one information and handouts.

The use of heroin in St. Lawrence County has skyrocketed in recent years.

Last year, Canton-Potsdam Hospital’s director of drug treatment programs Adam Bullock said the number of heroin users seeking treatment there has doubled annually since 2011, and that’s just people who can get into a program.

He described it as “epidemic proportions.”

Heroin seizures or recoveries in St. Lawrence County jumped from 15 in 2012 to 57 in 2013, according to Sen. Patricia Ritchie, R-Heuvelton.

“There used to be a stigma to heroin. But with the availability now, more and more people are trying it, and it’s easy to get hooked,” said St. Lawrence County Sheriff Kevin Wells.

Heroin use has risen as prescription narcotic pain relievers such as hydrocodone and similar painkillers have become harder to obtain and as manufacturers have changed the formulations to make it harder to get the high abusers seek, Wells says. And heroin is now more available and relatively cheap.

The Massena Drug-Free Coalition’s mission is “to implement sustainable prevention strategies that will reduce and prevent substance abuse among youth, the family and the community,” according to its Facebook page.

Its more than 20 members include law enforcement, educators, healthcare professionals and religious leaders.