The Walking Dead.

It’s what widespread drug addiction in our community is making of our residents. Good people going down very long and dark rabbit holes, chasing after an escape from reality they’ll quite never catch.

In just short six months, Butler County already is poised to surpass — most likely by double digits — the number of drug overdose fatalities for the whole of 2018.

That’s a problem.

And it’s one that concerns not just police, first responders and family members of addicts, but all of us as a community.

More and more often these days, police reports and raids involve drug dealers from outside Butler County moving in and setting up shop in the apartments and homes of community members suffering from and battling addiction.

Drugs may be the monkey on the backs of these individuals, but dealers are the gorillas roaming our streets.

As a community, all of us affected by this growing problem must ask with one voice: At what point do we stand up and say enough is enough?

This isn’t a problem that is going away anytime soon as evidenced by the national trend as well as our local statistics.

On Thursday, Gov. Tom Wolf touted recently released Drug Enforcement Agency data showing an 18 percent drop in overdose deaths in Pennsylvania between 2017 and 2018. Butler County saw just 46 overdose deaths in 2018.

Well, that was then. This is now.

So far this year, as of the end of June more than 30 people died from drug overdoses in Butler County. Everybody wants to point fingers directing the blame away from themselves. It’s the whole “not my problem” mentality.

But here’s the reality as cold and rigid as the bodies piling up in the local morgue — drug addiction and all its deadly tentacles are problems owned and paid for by every single one of us in a community.

Sure, there are the needs for additional officers to police our streets and more volunteer first responders to save lives.

But there is also a growing criminal underbody from outside Butler County inching its way into the fabric of our neighborhoods by preying on addicts and setting up shop in exchange for a fix.

Enough already.

Everyone plays a part in the solution to this growing problem. Everyone.

It’s like the adage that if you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem. It’s a matter of standing up together and saying no more with one loud, unified voice.

Given the last several drug raids stemmed from community member tips made to authorities, we might actually be moving in the right direction. But a few tips here and there is also not going to solve the problem.

There are signs around town urging community members to get involved. If you see something, say something. Do something.

This should be a mantra Butler County community members cry high from the hilltops and down in the valleys.

But here’s the reality: It can’t just be one or two community members joining forces with law enforcement advocates. This is truly one of those crossroads where it takes all of us rising up together.