The drug enforcement spotlight shines brightly this week on Pennsylvania State Police in Somerset County after troopers seized about 15 pounds of pure, uncut heroin following a traffic stop on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Troopers stopped a work van after discovering the license plate didn’t match the make and model of the vehicle. Driver Maria Pina and passenger Gilberto Ocampo, both of Illinois, seemed nervous but consented to a search, according to the criminal complaint.

That’s when police spotted an air compressor that looked tampered with. Inside, officers said they found 7 kilograms — about 15 pounds — of uncut heroin.

By any measure, that’s an unusually large quantity of the highly addictive drug. Authorities aren’t even sure what it’s worth because they’ve never before seized this much of the pure drug. They figure it must be worth millions.

According to the White House’s Office of National Drug Policy, one acre of cultivated opium poppies can produce enough opium to process one kilogram of heroin. By that measure, the Somerset County seizure represents the output of seven acres of poppies, most likely grown in Mexico, the primary supplier of heroin to the United States.

Heroin production in Mexico continues to increase rapidly. Estimated cultivation of opium poppies reached 26,000 acres in 2012 — an estimated pure potential production of 26,000 kilograms of heroin.

By the measure of annual production, the Turnpike seizure seems almost insignificant. What’s seven kilograms in the face of a production capacity of 26,000 kilos?

Don’t be deceived. It is significant.

It’s enough to interrupt the flow of millions of dollars worth of the dangerous, addictive drug to thousands of recreational and hard-core users.

It’s enough maybe to knock an upper-level drug dealer out of business for a long time, maybe even permanently.

It’s enough to serve notice to would-be drug dealers that the illicit drug trade entails major risks.

And while the big numbers of national production and consumption tend to put an abstract face on the twin devils of drug abuse and addiction, let’s not lose sight of the fact they are a local problem with local consequences. A mere four weeks ago, state Attorney General Kathleen Kane issued a heroin advisory in Western Pennsylvania after nearly two dozen individuals died, including at least three in Butler County, after ingesting heroin mixed with fentanyl, a potent synthetic opiate.

The turnpike seizure was significant. Interdiction must remain part of our fight against drug abuse — but it’s only one step. Education is equally important, if not more so. Young people especially should be given the hard truth about the effects of heroin and other drugs, perhaps hear the stories from former addicts themselves.